Cardinals prospect Blake Aita opens up about his development following Red Sox trade

The St. Louis Cardinals signaled a full-scale rebuild this past offseason when they traded veterans and key contributors like Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, and Brendan Donovan for a splattering of prospects. One of those prospects was right-handed pitcher Blake Aita.

"It was honestly a pretty big shock at first, not because I didn't think I was able to get traded but because I was on vacation in Mexico with my family and my girlfriend," said Aita of the trade. "We were at a Japanese restaurant and the Red Sox farm director gave me a call, and I knew I was getting traded."

Aita was known for having a deep pitch mix and the ability to post every week in the minors. He finished 2025 with a 3.98 ERA and 99 strikeouts in 115.1 innings with the Red Sox.

Cardinals' pitching prospect Blake Aita enjoys the challenge of pitching in Double-A.

Aita started the year with the Peoria Chiefs, the High-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, but he was recently promoted to Double-A Springfield. "The transition has been good," said Aita. "You can tell there's more of an approach to how they take their at-bats. For me, there's less swing and miss in two-strike counts, there's more battle, but there isn't a point where I feel outmatched."

Blake's first game was against the Tulsa Drillers after being promoted, the Los Angeles Angels Double-A affiliate. Right off the bat, Blake was going head-to-head with three top-50 prospects in baseball in Zyhir Hope, Mike Sirota, and Joseu De Paula. "Hope hit a homer off me, Sirota went 1 for 3, and I struck out De Paula twice. Those are the hitters you want to face, but that was definitely the biggest switch just seeing the talent at the Double-A level."

Aita, pronounced eye-da, is currently pitching for the Cardinals' Double-A affiliate Springfield Cardinals. He started the year in High-A with the Peoria Chiefs. He's thrown 75 innings between the two levels with a cumulative 3.72 ERA and 80 strikeouts. The increase in his strikeout rate (18.3% in 2025 to 24.8% in 2026) is something that Aita takes pride in this year.

Blake Aita and Brandon Clarke, once roommates within the Boston Red Sox system, are close to being reunited in Springfield this year.

In two separate deals this offseason, the Cardinals acquired pitchers Brandon Clarke and Blake Aita from the Boston Red Sox. Clarke and Aita were once roommates in the Red Sox minor-league system. Clarke was moved first, and Aita was a bit concerned that he wouldn't get the chance to continue growing his friendship with Clarke.

"I will be in his wedding, and he will be in mine next year. We talk two to three times a week, and I can't wait for him to get up here (to Springfield)," said Aita. "It all depends on who you get traded for and how early in your career where you get traded, but there was never really a feeling of doubt with this trade."

After being traded to the Cardinals, Clarke and Aita were excited to be teammates once again. "It would be really cool if we got drafted by one team and we come to another team together and work our way up to the show here and win in St. Louis," Clarke told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this past offseason.

Clarke and Aita aren't at the same level right now, but Blake hopes that they'll be reunited in Springfield in the near future. Clarke, 23, is working back following a procedure that helped take care of blisters and numbness he would feel in his fingers. He's still a couple of levels away from his former roommate, but Clarke is showing excellent stuff in Low-A Palm Beach at the moment.

Aita worked diligently over the offseason to improve his repertoire, focusing specifically on his splitter. "I added (the splitter) in last year in start number nine (with Boston)," said Aita. "I call it a splitter, I call it a split-change, but it's basically a changeup. I'm a big supinator, and the Red Sox gave me this grip where I split my fingers a little bit. The way it works is it comes off my middle finger at the right spot to make the ball go down a little bit more."

Blake also worked on curveball. His goal in adding it initially was to provide a good north-south offering, but the more he threw it the harder it became. He wanted it to have a bigger shape to create more movement as a counter against left-handed batters. Aita takes pride in his deep repertoire with good stuff, and while his fastball isn't overpowering or high-level, he throws three different ones (sinker, cutter, and four-seamer) to deceive hitters. He's hoping with offseason training and time he can add velocity.

"Now that I'm in Double-A, I want to continue attacking hitters with aggression. I want to continue working on everything, really. There's always room for improvement." During the offseason, Aita wants to add velocity through mechanical development.

Blake Aita feels like the Cardinals' pitching development team fits him perfectly

I asked Blake Aita about the differences between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox development systems, and he was quite complimentary of the Cardinals' system.

"The Red Sox are a big market team and get a lot of pitchers, especially pitchers with traits. They had a less individualized way of programming than St. Louis," said Aita. "I think I fit a lot better in the development side of things over here with the Cardinals with who I am as a player. When it comes to in-season development, with the Red Sox it was very metrically driven. I'm a big competitor, so there's a time and a place when it comes to performance-driven analysis. With the Cardinals we look at how you pitched, your process, how much were you in zone."

At the end of our conversation, I asked Blake about the Cardinals' new facilities in Jupiter, Florida. Blake spoke very highly of them, saying that it was the biggest weight room he had ever been in and that the dining hall, aptly named the "Bird Feeder", was "sick". He described the facility as a whole as top-tier.

Blake Aita is certainly a player to keep an eye on. He has big plans for himself this upcoming offseason to add velocity to an already deep and versatile repertoire. With the Cardinals focusing on long-term development, Aita could benefit tremendously from the development group led by Matt Pierpont.

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