Going into the recent MLB Draft, the temptation for the Cardinals and scouting director Randy Flores surely must have been to draft for need. That’s not advisable in baseball, even when prospects are arriving in the pros more fully formed than ever.
A number of pre-draft mocks had prep infielder Eli Willits going their way. Sure, the Cardinals have an infield glut right now, and that’s before acknowledging that last year’s top pick, JJ Wetherholt, will almost certainly be ready for St. Louis in a matter of weeks. Again, though, you can’t let the MLB depth chart inform draft decisions, especially when the potential draftee in question is 17 years old, as Willits is.
Willits, though, wound up going No. 1 overall to the Nationals in what may have been a mild surprise. Then the Angels perpetrated the first real stunner of the draft when they tabbed UC-Santa Barbara right-hander Tyler Bremner with the second pick. The Mariners at No. 3 took LSU lefty Kade Anderson, and then the Rockies as expected did not let infielder Ethan Holliday, son of Matt, pass them by at No. 4. That put the Cardinals on the clock, and that brings us back to that discussion of drafting for need. With Willits and Holliday spoken for, Flores was free to draft for need while also taking the top talent available. That’s a sweet spot of sorts, at least when it comes to the lovely and shade-providing draft-day decision tree.
Said need is for pitching, and more specifically it’s to bring velocity and swing and miss into an organization that presently doesn’t have enough of it. Enter Liam Doyle, the lefty out of Tennessee whom the Cardinals selected with their highest pick since 1998. In light of those needs, he’s an ideal choice.
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