The Cardinals are finally getting a look at the kind of arm they targeted when they spent the offseason reshaping the roster around young, controllable pitching.
Brandon Clarke, the club’s No. 7 prospect, turned heads on Saturday in just his second appearance of the season and second overall outing in the Cardinals organization. The left-hander reached 103.1 miles per hour with his fastball, a ridiculous number for any pitcher, let alone a 23-year-old coming back from a long layoff.
Clarke’s road back has been slow. He missed the first few months of the season after undergoing surgery in January to address an aneurysm in his left arm, then made his season debut on July 11 with the FCL Cardinals. His latest outing came in a Low-A rehab start, where the velocity jumped off the radar almost immediately.
A fifth-round pick by the Boston Red Sox in the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft, Clarke came to St. Louis this past offseason in the Sonny Gray trade. The Red Sox sent Clarke, Richard Fitts, and a player to be named later to the Cardinals in exchange for Gray and $20 million.
That deal hasn’t looked great for St. Louis so far, but Clarke’s stuff gives the organization a reason to keep watching closely. In 2025, he made his professional debut in Boston’s farm system and posted a 4.03 ERA in 14 starts while climbing as high as High-A.
The velocity is what makes him stand out. Jacob Misiorowski has owned the conversation all season with his heater, and he holds the record for the fastest fastball by a starter in recorded big league history at 105.5 miles per hour. Clarke was just about two miles per hour shy of that mark in only his second outing of the season.
For the Cardinals, the wait has been long. But if Clarke keeps flashing this kind of arm, the trade that brought him to St. Louis could end up looking a lot better down the line.
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