Cardinals return Tink Hence to Memphis after mechanics reset
Tink Hence is back in Memphis with his 2026 path still on the line. The Cardinals want cleaner command after eight earned runs in 8.1 innings opened his season badly.
Tink Hence is back in Memphis with the next outing or two carrying real weight for his 2026 season. The Cardinals sent the 23-year-old right-hander to their Florida complex in late April to work on his mechanics after he was tagged for eight earned runs in 8.1 innings to open the Triple-A year, then moved him back to the Memphis Redbirds on June 2 after a reset they believe has put him in a better place.
That return matters because the Cardinals have not shut the door on his major-league timeline. Hence remains on the 40-man roster, and MLB Pipeline entered 2026 with him ranked No. 15 in the system and an ETA of 2026. For a pitcher who has already been through a bruising development cycle, Memphis is now the proving ground again: show better strike-throwing, hold up in a starter’s workload, and push himself back into the Cardinals’ pitching conversation.
The early numbers made the detour necessary. Hence opened the season in the Memphis bullpen after the Cardinals shifted him out of the rotation in spring training, but the results were rough anyway. He posted an 8.64 ERA in 8 1/3 innings with nine walks, a sharp break from the kind of performance that once made him one of the organization’s most intriguing arms. In 2024 at Double-A Springfield, he worked 79 2/3 innings with a 2.71 ERA and 109 strikeouts, the kind of line that suggested a fast track to St. Louis.
That track has been slowed by health and inconsistency. MLB.com reported that Hence had climbed as high as No. 64 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 before an injury-marred 2025 knocked him out of that tier. His season that year was interrupted by a right lat strain and later ended by a right shoulder impingement after just 21 1/3 innings across four minor-league levels. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol called his repertoire “electric” in spring training, but also stressed that staying healthy would be important.
There is still pedigree behind the pressure. St. Louis took Hence 63rd overall in the 2020 Draft, and he is the only one of the Cardinals’ first four picks from that shortened class who has not reached the majors. That makes Memphis more than a stopover. It is the latest checkpoint for a former top prospect whose stuff has long drawn attention, and whose next few outings will determine whether the reset in Florida becomes a restart in earnest.
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