The St. Louis Cardinals are beginning to see the kind of performance they envisioned when they selected left-hander Liam Doyle with the fifth overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft. After a difficult start to his first full professional season, Doyle has steadily turned his campaign around and is now pitching with significantly more confidence and consistency.
Doyle delivered perhaps his strongest performance of the second half Wednesday night, striking out nine hitters over five innings while allowing only one hit and one unearned run as Double-A Springfield cruised to a 12-2 victory over Arkansas.
The outing was another major step forward for the Cardinals’ No. 2 prospect, who has spent much of the summer demonstrating that his early-season struggles were not necessarily representative of his true ability.
Doyle entered professional baseball with considerable expectations. Before joining the Cardinals organization, he established himself as a highly regarded amateur pitcher, competing at several major college programs after an impressive high school career at Pinkerton Academy in New Hampshire. His collegiate stops included Coastal Carolina, Ole Miss and Tennessee, giving him experience against high-level competition before St. Louis made him the fifth selection in the 2025 Draft.
His transition to the professional game, however, has not been completely smooth. The Cardinals assigned him to Double-A Springfield for his first full season, placing him in the Texas League, one of the more hitter-friendly environments in the Minors. After a brief professional appearance in 2025, Doyle was forced to adjust quickly to the demands of a full schedule against advanced hitters.
The first half produced uneven results. In 14 appearances for Springfield, Doyle posted a 5.46 ERA, while opponents hit .264 with a .798 OPS against him. Yet those surface numbers did not tell the entire story. His .361 batting average on balls in play suggested that some of the damage was influenced by poor fortune and defensive outcomes rather than simply ineffective pitching.
Since the All-Star break, the results have changed dramatically.
Doyle has allowed two runs or fewer in each of his six appearances since July 19. During that stretch, he has posted a remarkable 1.74 ERA while holding opposing hitters to a .144 batting average. He has also surrendered only one home run over the past month, giving the Cardinals further evidence that his command, pitch efficiency and ability to generate weak contact are improving.
His latest outing against Arkansas was a perfect example.
Doyle retired the first 14 batters he faced, establishing control of the game almost immediately. Seven of his strikeouts came consecutively from the second through fourth innings, while only three balls were hit out of the infield during his dominant stretch.
Even more impressive was how efficiently he worked. Doyle needed only eight pitches to complete the first inning, quickly retiring highly regarded Mariners prospects Jonny Farmelo and Felnin Celesten. Those efficient innings have become increasingly important because the Cardinals have maintained a controlled workload for the young left-hander.
Doyle had thrown between 71 and 87 pitches in 17 consecutive starts, meaning every efficient inning gives him a better chance to work deeper into games without exceeding the organization’s preferred limits.
That efficiency has already produced noticeable progress. Doyle has now completed at least five innings in six of his last seven starts. During the first 17 starts of the season, he reached five innings only twice.
His ability to generate strikeouts remains one of the biggest reasons the Cardinals are so high on him. Against Arkansas, Doyle repeatedly attacked hitters with a fastball that approached triple digits and played particularly well at the top of the strike zone.
Six of his nine strikeouts came on his four-seam fastball, a pitch that carries a 70 grade and is considered one of the premier offerings among MLB prospects.
The improvement in his batted-ball results has also been encouraging. After carrying an unusually high .361 BABIP during the first half, Doyle entered Wednesday’s start with a .232 BABIP over his previous five outings. That shift suggests more of the balls being put in play are now finding defenders, helping his overall results better reflect the quality of his underlying pitching.
Doyle was selected to represent the Cardinals in the 2026 All-Star Futures Game despite his inconsistent first half, a clear indication that evaluators continued to believe in his long-term potential.
There is still one area that requires attention: his performance against left-handed hitters. Doyle has displayed reverse splits, with right-handed hitters entering Wednesday batting only .205 with a .641 OPS against him, while left-handed hitters were hitting .281 with an .828 OPS.
His splitter has been particularly effective against right-handed batters. The 84-87 mph pitch features significant downward movement and has become his most reliable secondary offering. Developing a more consistent breaking ball could be critical to improving his numbers against lefties and giving him another weapon when facing same-handed hitters.
He showed progress in that area during his latest outing, recording two strikeouts against left-handed batters with his breaking ball.
Despite the uneven beginning to his season, the Cardinals remain committed to developing Doyle as a starting pitcher. The organization appears willing to prioritize his long-term growth over short-term statistics, carefully managing his workload while allowing him to refine his entire arsenal.
That approach is especially important considering Doyle is only 22 and is experiencing his first full season of professional baseball. The Cardinals view him as a potential future rotation piece rather than simply a short-term pitching option.
His recent performance suggests that patience may be paying off.
The combination of a high-powered fastball, a dangerous splitter, improving secondary pitches, strikeout ability and emerging command gives Doyle the foundation of a potential major league starter. If he can continue carrying his second-half success into the final weeks of the season, his stock could rise even further within a Cardinals organization already regarded as one of the stronger farm systems in baseball.
For now, Doyle appears to have found his rhythm at precisely the right time. After enduring a challenging first half, the Cardinals’ top pitching prospect is showing why St. Louis invested so heavily in his potential and why the organization remains confident that he can eventually become a major piece of its big league rotation.
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