The Cardinals have filled the final piece of the Lars Nootbaar trade, announcing that they received right-hander Brian Curley from the Diamondbacks as the player to be named later.
Curley, 23, was Arizona’s third-round pick in last year’s draft out of Georgia, where he landed a $700K signing bonus. He didn’t pitch in pro ball last season, but in 2026 he moved from High-A to Double-A in July and worked in 25 games overall.
Twenty-three of those outings were starts, though he also handled bulk innings in his two relief appearances. Across those 116 innings, he posted a 5.28 ERA.
The surface numbers weren’t eye-catching, but the underlying performance gives the Cardinals something to work with. Curley struck out 25.3% of the hitters he faced and walked just 6.6%, while getting grounders on 43.2% of balls in play.
His ERA may have been dragged down by a .381 batting average on balls in play, and 21.4% of his fly balls went for home runs, roughly twice the usual rate. Sometimes that kind of spike is tied to what a pitcher is doing, but it can also just be noise in a small sample.
Baseball America currently has Curley ranked as the No. 19 prospect in Arizona’s system. Their report says his fastball sits in the mid-90s and can reach triple digits, and that he also mixes in a slider, curveball, sweeper and changeup. They’re not sold on whether his stuff will hold up well enough for him to remain a starter, but they do think the fastball and slider could tick up if he ends up in the bullpen.
For now, the Cardinals have added another arm to the mix and plenty of runway to sort out what Curley eventually becomes. He won’t be Rule 5 eligible until after the 2028 season.
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