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In the 2026 @MLBazFallLeague, #stlcards prospects will be part of the Peoria Javelinas. Play starts October 3. I'll be there as I am every year and The Cardinal Nation will have daily game recaps. Here's the AFL schedule. https://t.co/eT6co9BzyO pic.twitter.com/5Zg8ingcQF
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) August 24, 2026
When will we see rosters filled out? There are several interesting choices the Cards may choose from!
There is no published schedule. Last year, rosters were announced on September 10.
I am wondering who would be on their AFL roster? There will be a lot of pitchers who have thrown a lot of innings, and would likely need rested. Not sure but maybe Eagen and Santana. Maybe Rodriguez, but he has had a busy year and will be involved in the Springfield playoffs. Peete, Gurevitch, and Ragland could be possibilities.
Randal Clemente is the first name that comes to mind as a good candidate.
Joe King and Brian Holiday make sense to round out the pitchers.
Deniel Ortiz as the everyday player. One of Ryan Campos or Sammy Hernandez makes sense. Then maybe Yordalin Peña and Jalin Flores.
Ok. Those are my prognostications.
Repeaters are not unheard of, but are unusual. As I noted in the article, Clemente went to the 2025 AFL. Aim for four pitchers, jnevel. Think of a starter, too. I don’t think Holiday is experienced enough for that assignment. Though they’ve sent starters more than once and had them throw an inning at a time as a reliever, so I am not saying Holiday couldn’t be on the list.
Thanks for the pointers Brian.
Ok. I’m sticking with Clemente just because of the weird situation he is in. But you’re right – repeaters are uncommon. I’ll stick with Joe King as well. I’ll move off Holiday given his low inning total in the Minors. So two more with one needing to be a starter . . .
Findlay and Worley are both good reliever choices. Maybe one goes in place of Clemente but since I stuck with Clemente, I’ll go with Findlay over Worley. Starter is tricky. I’d choose Dohm but he’s injured. Hjerpe or Roby could both use extended innings but both are beyond AFL level at this point. Roby does probably make the most sense though looking through the list. I’ll go with him for lack of better options.
I landed on: Roby, Clemente, King, Findlay, Ortiz, Campos, Pena, and Flores. Odds are I get one right! Maybe.
Another possibility for the AFL roster is Davila from Springfield. He has yet to be scored on in August. Though he probably won’t have enough innings to be pitcher of the month. I think he may have added a splitter/changeup.
With Dohm coming back from injury, I’m changing up my projection for the AFL:
Starter: Dohm
Relievers: Clemente, Worley, Findlay (swapping Worley who I mentioned above in for Joe King)
Everyday Position Player: Deniel Ortiz
Other Position Players: Campos, Yordelin Pena, and Jalin Flores
None of these guys are true top prospects, which follows the trend recently. Ortiz would be the most intriguing to watch as he is an upper level prospect.
Dohm has dealt with some injuries and this gives him a chance to re-write some of the narrative for this season. Ortiz missed time earlier in the year so this extends him out closer to a full season. Worley missed a lot of time the first couple seasons after being drafted and has become good out of the pen lately – good enough to see how he continues. I believe Clemente would both be a free agent and Rule 5 guy so this continues a window to view him before making a decision. Findlay is maybe our best developing lefty reliever option (if you don’t count our starters) so it will be good to keep giving him opportunities. Campos – just because we probably need to send a catcher and he’s done well so far in his Cards career. I don’t feel as strongly about Pena or Flores, but both are mid-tier prospects who fit the timeline for competing in the AFL.
Yes, Hjerpe pitched in the 2023 AFL.
As a point for everyone, all awards and special assignments like the AFL are documented on each Player Page here at TCN. You can access them via Team Rosters menu.
Given his career high in innings would Franklin be considered for the AFL? Otherwise maybe repeaters like Roby and Hjerpe. Although Hjerpe may get a chance in St Louis before the end of the year.
Seems optimistic that Roby could be ready for the AFL since it is already 9/1 and he hasn’t even pitched in rehab games yet.
I doubt they would send a valuable arm like Franklin, who as you noted has thrown a lot of innings (relatively) already, but that is just my feeling.
I still wonder if Roby couldn’t be used in relief to get some innings. This is assuming he gets back to game action. He has the Memphis playoffs to appear in if he’s ready which should be the end of September.
A reminder that the Class-A season ends in six days. That means no more Palm Beach or Peoria rehabs very soon. Especially after Roby missing this much time, it would be very unusual to drop him right into Triple-A action without a lower level tune-up first. Not impossible, but not likely, either, as I see it.
Here is one of our AZL Fall League players!
How about another Javelina? Tai Peete is #ValleyBound
The @cardinals No. 17 prospect is headed to Peoria this Fall! In 64 games between three levels, Peete is batting .302 this season with a .930 OPS and has 13 homers and 16 stolen bases.
Stay tuned to see who else is Valley… pic.twitter.com/AismyaN1QN
— MLB's Arizona Fall League (@MLBazFallLeague) September 11, 2026
Bringing the 🔥 to the desert!
LHP Brandon Clarke (No. 9), RHP Tekoah Roby (No. 14) and OF Tai Peete (No. 17) lead the #STLCards minor leaguers named to the Peoria roster for the upcoming AFL season.
The 2026 @MLBazFallLeague runs from Oct. 3-Nov. 14. pic.twitter.com/p06QNoE83r
— Cardinals Player Development (@CardsPlayerDev) September 15, 2026
Interestingly, Hernandez and McGee are listed as infielders as the Javelinas have three other catchers on the roster.
That is a fun list of guys going to the AFL. Really glad to see Roby there but I am guessing it will be in an RP role to limit pitches this year.
Go figure. I got a mere 1 correct with Dohm. I did mention Roby (or at least I thought strongly about him) and Hernandez as possibilities. I didn’t even realize Elissalt was back healthy enough to pitch. Pretty much the same with Roby as he didn’t appear in a single contest this season.
The one that truly surprises me here is Watson. He’s had a pretty terrible year. Maybe he’s working on something new and just needs some time with it?
I like the McGee and Peete picks. Peete has had a great year on offense, but he’s also missed lots of little slivers of time. McGee is a guy who has had a ho-hum season up until he recently got promoted to AA and then he has taken off.
I worry about Clarke. He came back from 27 injuries (maybe exaggerating a bit) and started immediately throwing 100+. That was a way of saying “look at me and what I can do”. And now we plan to send him to the AFL where all minor league eyes will be on him. What will he do for an encore and how much is that going to cost us?
Clarke has been tearing himself up since high school when he had TJ. Prototypical case of a kid stressing him arm too much before his body was finished growing. They need to make him a closer and try to get what they can while they can. I’m guessing Roby might be in that bucket too. But good luck to them.
How do we know Clarke was “tearing himself up”? Seems a highly presumptive statement, but maybe someone has something to back it up.
This summer, we don’t know how long Clarke had been ramping up to pitch in games. Did he really throw 100 “immediately”? And was it irresponsible behavior or within the guidelines the staff gave him?
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