Don't sleep on Cardinals prospect Tekoah Roby as he makes his play for 2027 debut

Arguably the centerpiece of the Jordan Montgomery trade for the St. Louis Cardinals at the 2023 MLB Trade Deadline, right-handed pitcher Tekoah Roby missed the entire 2026 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2025. But don't let that cause you to forget how good of a prospect he is.

For a few years, Roby was finding himself on top 100 prospect lists because of his great stuff on the mound and projectability as a true middle-of-the-rotation starter. The only reason the Texas Rangers made him available in a trade at that deadline was because of their all-in approach toward winning the World Series and Roby's injuries that summer

But since Roby hasn't pitched in a professional game since July 10th, 2025, and the Cardinals added so much prospect talent since then, he's become a bit of an afterthought in this loaded Cardinals system.

But MLB Pipeline's Sam Dystrka agrees that people would be foolish to overlook Roby's upside in the midst of that.

Tekoah Roby still has a ton of potential for Cardinals rotation

Checking in as the Cardinals' 13th-ranked prospect on Baseball America and 14th-ranked by MLB Pipeline, there was a strong case back in 2025 that Roby was the Cardinals' best pitching prospect, but now he's lagging behind the likes of Liam Doyle, Tanner Franklin, Quinn Mathews, Yhoiker Fajardo, Brandon Clarke, and Jurragnelo Cijntje. But once again, that has more to do with the state of the Cardinals system than it does with Roby's talent.

Both Pipeline and Baseball America still see mid-rotation starter upside in Roby, boasting a strong arsenal of weapons that could give him a ton of tools to get big-league hitters out long-term. He throws a fastball, sinker, slider, curveball, and changeup, with the sinker being the lone pitch that seems to be below average. Everything else has real upside, with his curveball and slider grading out as the best of the bunch.

Roby's fastball sits in the mid-90s and gets great separation from his changeup, giving him four pitches that he can play with on the mound. He was really starting to pitch well at Triple-A prior to his elbow injury, and if he enters Spring Training at full strength, he's got a real shot to make the Cardinals rotation by the middle of the summer in 2027.

Roby is slated to pitch in the Arizona Fall League, a great opportunity for him to get some game reps this year and tinker with some of the pitches he's been working on during his rehab. That sinker, for example, is a pitch he told Dykstra that he has plans to improve, and it will be very interesting to see how his command is on the mound.

It's easy to gloss over the fact that the Cardinals had the 12th-best rotation ERA in baseball in 2026, led by a young rotation that featured Kyle Leahy, Andre Pallante, Michael McGreevy, Quinn Mathews, and Hunter Dobbins. While they'll be without Dobbins next season, they have the chance to add the likes of Roby, Cooper Hjerpe, Richard Fitts, and Jurragnelo Cijntje to that mix early on, with Liam Doyle, Tanner Franklin, Mason Molina, and others following soon.

The young pitching is getting close, and that should act as an accelerant to the Cardinals' burst back onto the competitive scene in 2027.

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