Cardinals Select Liam Doyle With Fifth Overall Pick in MLB Draft

Cardinals Select Liam Doyle With Fifth Overall Pick in MLB Draft originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

With the fifth overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, the St. Louis Cardinals selected LHP Liam Doyle out of the University of Tennessee.

With the 5th overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, the St. Louis Cardinals select LHP Liam Doyle! pic.twitter.com/luWaFh2hjR

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) July 13, 2025

This year’s draft marks the first time the Cardinals have selected in the top five since 1998, when they took J.D. Drew fifth overall.

Heading into the draft, there was a lot of uncertainty as to which direction the Cardinals would go in with the No. 5 pick. For months, mock drafts have gone back and forth between having St. Louis take a pitcher or a shortstop.

According to MLB Pipeline, Doyle is the No. 8 overall player and No. 4 overall pitcher in this year’s class. Their final mock draft had Doyle going second overall to the Angels.

Doyle spent a year at Coastal Carolina and a year at Ole Miss before transferring to Tennessee for his junior season, where he posted a 3.20 ERA and 164 strikeouts in 95 ⅔  innings pitched.

The ace for a Tennessee team that made it to super regionals in 2025, Doyle racked up a plethora of awards this past season. In addition to being a unanimous first-team All-American and SEC Pitcher of the Year, the 21-year-old lefty was named Pitcher of the Year by Perfect Game and was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award.

Referred to by many as the “psycho lefty”, Doyle isn’t afraid to showcase his emotions while on the mound.

"LIAM DOYLE'S A MAD MAN!"

The team that drafts Liam Doyle is getting one fiery dude 🔥

(📽️: @ESPN) pic.twitter.com/Z3THYS2boC

— MLB (@MLB) June 3, 2025

Several satisfied Cardinals fans took to ‘X’ to give their thoughts on the club’s first-round pick.

“Cardinals fans, you want your swing-and-miss starter? Here he is. Liam Doyle is a home run pick at 5,” one user said.

“On the one hand, I wish it was Arnold. On the other hand, I GET TO ROOT FOR THE PSYCHO LEFTY,” someone else chimed in.

“The Cardinals drafting Liam Doyle feels very Chaim Bloom and not very John Mozeliak. I like it,” another wrote.

The Cardinals have three more picks in night one of the draft, with their next coming at No. 55 overall. They also own the 72nd and 89th picks.

After the first three rounds tonight, the remaining 17 rounds will take place on Monday, beginning at 10:30 a.m. CST.

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 13, 2025, where it first appeared.