Parker Messick’s Cy Young rise gives Cardinals fans another reason to believe in Rob Cerfolio

As Rob Cerfolio steps into the St. Louis Cardinals general manager role, I'm looking hard at his former farmhand, Parker Messick, as to what may be possible for the Cardinals in the coming years as their own electric arms continue to make Major League debuts.

Cerfolio mentioned during his introductory press conference how rewarding it was to see names like Messick and Chase DeLauter have success in 2026 and lead the Cleveland Guardians to the American League Championship Series, the team that Cerfolio spent a decade with prior to coming over to the Cardinals after the 2024 season.

Messick, 26, debuted for Cleveland at the end of the 2025 season and just put up a Cy Young-caliber year in his full rookie campaign, posting a 2.56 ERA (3.13 FIP) while making 32 starts, covering 186.1 innings of work, and striking out 25.8% of the batters he faced. What a year for the young lefty!

Because of Messick's top-three finish in AL Cy Young voting, he will net the Cleveland Guardians a PPI selection in the 2027 MLB Draft.

Once upon a time, when the Cardinals were shopping Brendan Donovan, I had Messick as the main piece I'd be looking at in a deal with the Guardians. Admittedly, I did not see this kind of performance from Messick, but I was very intrigued by what he had shown up to that point in his career and was interested in what he'd look like in a Cardinals uniform. The Cardinals seem to have done pretty well for themselves though by shipping Donovan to Seattle.

This isn't a "Cardinals should have found a way to snag Messick from the Guardians" story, but rather a taste of what the Cardinals hope may be sprouting out of their own farm system in the near future.

Cardinals hope they have their own Parker Messick debuting here soon

Cerfolio, along with farm director Larry Day, came over from a Guardians pipeline that produced Messick, Gavin Williams (who struck out 248 batters in 2026!), Shane Bieber (a Cy Young Award winner himself), Joey Cantillo, Tanner Bibee, Daniel Espino, and many other fun, dynamic arms who have helped fuel their success.

Director of pitching, Matt Pierpont, came over from the Seattle Mariners, where a wealth of arms like Bryan Woo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller, and more were developed while he was there.

The Cardinals took a huge step forward at the Major League level in 2026 with their starting pitching, posting the 12th-best rotation ERA (4.17), FIP (3.96), and fWAR (12.0) in the sport with one of the youngest groups of starters as well. The floor for the Cardinals' rotation was raised significantly, and even if they pitched a bit above their skis at times and benefited from great defense and Busch Stadium, it doesn't discount the fact that Kyle Leahy, Michael McGreevy, and Andre Pallante are at least quality starting pitchers, and Quinn Mathews has the potential to be a true middle-of-the-rotation starter, if not better.

That's what they've been paying guys like Miles Mikolas, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson, Steven Matz, and Erick Fedde to be in recent years, but outside of Fedde, each of those players was making $12 million or more a season to give worse production than those arms.

But what the Cardinals are missing from that group, aside from Mathews and maybe Leahy, who could be better than back-of-the-rotation arms, is true upside in their rotation. But that's what seems to be coming down below.

I'll start in order of arms by their "distance" from making a Major League debut.

Mathews was really good in his first nine starts of big-league action in 2026, and Cooper Hjerpe was also dynamic in his own right, though he's still working his way back from Tommy John and is unlikely to have a major workload in 2027. Tekoah Roby has looked phenomenal in the Arizona Fall League coming back from his own Tommy John surgery, and he could be starting games as soon as Opening Day as well. Oh, and don't forget about Richard Fitts, who has interesting stuff and has already made his MLB debut with Boston.

Jurrangelo Cijntje, who came over in the aforementioned Donovan trade, is a sneaky candidate to break camp with the Cardinals this year after he rocked out during the 2026 season. Now that he's likely done switch pitching, Cijntje can focus on bringing his 27.8 K% between Double-A and Triple-A from this past season up to St. Louis to add dynamic swing and miss to their rotation. Cijntje had his ups and downs in 2026, but looked dynamic against Triple-A bats by season's end.

How about Mason Molina? He made his way up to Memphis late in the season and, over his final six starts at the level, had a 0.29 ERA while striking out 34.2% of the batters he faced!

And we haven't even gotten to Liam Doyle or Tanner Franklin yet, the Cardinals' top two pitching prospects in their systems and arguably two of the best pitching prospects in the entire sport. The former University of Tennessee teammates will likely begin the 2027 season at Memphis, putting them on the doorstep of MLB debuts themselves.

I didn't even mention Brandon Clarke, who, when healthy, has maybe the best stuff of any pitching prospect in the sport. Actually, not just any prospect in the sport, maybe any arm in general. Or Yhoiker Fajardo, who was awesome at Double-A this year as just a 19-year-old.

Jacob Odle, Tegan Kuhns, Daniel Eagen, the list goes on!

What's the likelihood that any of these guys ever finish top three in Cy Young voting? That's a lofty bar, so not really fair to put on any of their shoulders. But if you had to look around baseball right now and bet on one group of pitching prospects to produce one of the best arms in the game soon, the Cardinals have arguably the longest list of names who have the potential to pop.

And again, it's not just the names and their past production that should excite fans - it's the group behind the scenes that is guiding them. That's why Cerfolio was such a strong candidate to lead baseball operations with another club, and why the Chaim Bloom trusted him to be the Cardinals' next GM.

If the Cardinals are going to get back to contention, they are going to need to hit on some of these arms coming through the system. They've got the front office group to do so, they seem to have the talent who can get there, and now time will tell on if they can pull it off.

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