Cardinals electric pitching prospect set to miss significant portion of 2026 season

Chaim Bloom spent the entire 2026 offseason looking to stock the St. Louis Cardinals' farm system with more exciting prospects as they embark on this rebuild. While he was successful in doing so, arguably the most exciting name of the bunch is going to miss half of the 2026 season due to a recent surgery.

Brandon Clarke, the electric left-hander acquired in the Sonny Gray trade, is expected to be out until June this year after the Cardinals surgically repaired an aneurysm in his throwing shoulder. The surgery was first reported by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch earlier this offseason, but Brian Walton, who does incredible work over at The Cardinals Nation and is worth subscribing to, shared a free article this morning reporting the news that Clarke is expected to be out until June.

Cardinals' eletric pitching prospect, Brandon Clarke, will be out until June recovering from offseason surgery

Clarke arguably has the highest upside of any pitching prospect in the Cardinals system, making him an extremely exciting get in the Gray deal. Clarke has dealt with a number of significant injuries already in his career, which is concerning, but the Cardinals are hopeful that this surgery will actually correct some of the things leading to his recent health issues.

Last year, Clarke was dominant on the mound for the Boston Red Sox's farm system, but he began to develop blisters that hurt his performance significantly. Prior to those blister issues, Clarke had quickly risen into top 100 prospect status and was going to keep pushing himself up that list if he kept up his elite pitching performances.

One of the reasons Bloom is continuing to collect so much pitching is because of this very issue - in today's game, you can truly never have enough pitching, as you just never know when a guy is going to go down with an injury, let alone even develop into a Major League talent. While Clarke has as much upside as anyone, the health risks are certainly there.

The Cardinals are under no pressure to rush Clarke's development, so they are rightfully taking their time to try and get him healthy for the long term before getting him on a mound in the organization. The only reason the Red Sox were willing to part with an arm like Clarke in the Gray deal was because of his injury history, so the Cardinals knew what they were getting into when acquiring this arm.