St. Louis Cardinals righthander Tink Hence has gone from the team’s most promising young pitcher to an organizational afterthought as he enters his sixth pro season
By Ryan K Boman | March 30, 2026
For a couple of years now, Cardinal Nation has been hearing about a very special young player in the club’s farm system. A player who had a ton of promise and was viewed as a potential front-line, All-Star pitcher someday. But thus far, 23-year-old Tink Hence has been unable to take the steps necessary to live up to that early promise, as he now enters his sixth season in professional baseball.
The Cardinals selected Hence out of Watson Chapel High School in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, with the 63rd overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft. He was immediately tagged by the club as one of its top pitching prospects, and for a while, he appeared to be progressing nicely.
However, the righthander has now dropped to no. 15 on the Redbirds’ list of top prospects. He’s seemingly gone from one of the team’s up-and-coming stars to almost an organizational afterthought. Especially when compared to some of his contemporaries.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Derrick Goold recently touched on how the team now views him in a bit of a different light. Their approach toward his development has changed a little, he writes.
“Drafted in 2020 along with Masyn Winn and Jordan Walker, Hence continues to have some of the best stuff in the organization,” Goold wrote. “He’s had difficulty remaining in games. He added strength this offseason and altered his mechanics to maintain his pitches but aim for more durability.”
“During major-league camp, the Cardinals shifted him to a reliever schedule to get him into more games and provide more game-speed opportunities for him to work on the new mechanics. Sent to minor-league camp, the Cardinals’ pitching and player development group discussed the plan for Hence there and opted to prioritize both appearances and recovery.”
However, Goold also reiterated that the franchise isn’t looking to make any drastic moves regarding Hence. They are instead trying to put him in successful situations, so he can work his way back to form. That was evidenced by general manager Chaim Bloom’s comments regarding the hurler’s current situation.
“We’re not thinking of him as a traditional reliever or a traditional starter,” Bloom said, as transcribed by Goold. “He’s in a really good spot in terms of both health and the stuff he’s bringing to the party. And we want him to get as much work as possible while we’re maintaining those two things.”
While Hence may have been scuffling through six seasons, he’s still young and has a lot of time to develop into a serviceable starter for St. Louis. He will likely never reach the lofty aspirations the team had for him when he was drafted, but his career isn’t unsalvageable by any means. At best, he can still rebound and be a solid no. 3 or 4 starter in the big leagues. At worst? He’s a throw-in on a trade if you decide to cut bait.
Limited and frustrated by injuries in 2025 Hence pitched a total of 21.1 innings on the season, posting an impressive 2.95 ERA and 24 strikeouts with Springfield, Peoria, Palm Beach, and the FCL Cardinals. After failing to make the big club out of Spring Training, he has started the year at Triple-A Memphis, with all parties hoping that he will make the MLB roster at some point this season.
To do so, he will have to overcome injury and inconsistency and display his electric stuff out on the mound. Perhaps then, we will finally see the Tink that we’ve been hearing about for so long.
The Sidearmer 