Hard-Throwing Lefty Prospect Could Reach Cardinals in 2027

A student of the game, president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom will regale anyone who will listen about how it was the St. Louis Cardinals and then-team president/GM/field manager Branch Rickey that invented the Minor League system in 1919.

Frustrated with his inability to nab young talent through open bidding – sound familiar, Cardinals fans? – Rickey convinced owner Sam Breadon to purchase controlling interests in Minor League franchises in Houston and Fort Smith, Ark., that would develop and produce young talent for the big-league club.

Bloom, who just completed his first season while running the Cardinals’ front office, has done extensive studies on Rickey’s work more than a century ago and how many of the franchise’s 11 World Series titles were fueled by a Minor League system that was far more developed than any other in baseball for decades.

When that system fell into disrepair, it was Bloom’s job to fortify a player development process that the Cardinals know must be their lifeblood in a free-agency world. Rightly so, Bloom made re-tooling the franchise’s Minor League system his top priority – in terms of adding coaches, evaluators, analytics staff and top-tier players.

While trading veterans Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan and later Dustin May, JoJo Romero and Lars Nootbaar, Bloom’s return was more than a dozen prospects and draft picks. All his work, while adding prospects such as Alexander Frias, Josiah Ragsdale, Tai Peete, Trevor Condon, Tegan Kuhns, Jurrangelo Cijntje, Yhoiker Fajardo, Sandro Santana and Daniel Eagen, allowed the Cardinals’ Minor League system to zip to No. 2 in the MiLB rankings, per Baseball America and No. 4, per MLB Pipeline.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be breaking down the top 30 prospects in the Cardinals’ Minor League system. Today’s prospect capsule is on left-handed starter Liam Doyle, a power pitcher who could land in St. Louis at some point in the 2027 season.  

Player name: Liam Doyle

2026 statistics: 23 games-23 starts, 7-7, 3.76 ERA, 103 IP, 81 hits, 43 earned runs, 10 HR allowed, three hit by pitches, 103 strikeouts, 54 walks, .218 batting average against.

MLB Pipeline rankings: No. 40 MiLB/No. 2 with Cards  

Key numbers: The hard-throwing lefty struck out 130 hitters in 103 innings in the regular season. Then, in two postseason starts, he struck out 14 in 8 2/3 innings while allowing just one earned run.

Looking back at 2026: Doyle was a completely different pitcher over the second half of the season following a rocky start in the hitter-friendly Texas League. After going just 1-5 with a 6.08 ERA and 64 strikeouts over his first 12 starts, Doyle was 6-2 with a 1.78 ERA and 66 strikeouts over his final 11 starts. Over his last six regular-season starts, he went 5-0 with strikeout totals of eight, six, nine, six, four and five in purposefully shortened outings. Some of Doyle’s early struggles could be attributed to the Cardinals demanding that he learn to land his secondary pitches instead of relying so much on his electrifying four-seam fastball. After posting poor ERAs in April (9.26), May (4.03) and June (5.82), he responded by pitching well in July (1.74), August (1.31) and September (2.53). He was dominant in his playoff start against eventual Texas League champion Amarillo, tossing five scoreless innings with six strikeouts and two walks.

Looking forward to 2027: Doyle is the ultimate competitor, and occasionally he can let his emotions get the best of him on the mound. He showed tremendous growth in that area in 2026 with how he pitched with runners in scoring position (.177 batting average against) and with the bases loaded (.125 batting average against). He almost assuredly will get an invite to Spring Training with the Cardinals and start the season with Triple-A Memphis – similar to No. 1 prospect Rainiel Rodriguez. A strong start could land him in St. Louis by June or July if all goes well with his progression. There will be a learning curve with Doyle and his ability to handle his emotions against MLB hitters, but he appears to be on a collision course with stardom because of his overpowering fastball and oozing confidence. Further development of his secondary pitches – being able to land them for strikes and inducing chase – will likely be determining factors in how quickly he gets to the big leagues in 2027 or ‘28.