The St. Louis Cardinals will be on the clock at pick No. 5 in under a week, and while the MLB Draft is notoriously unpredictable, the Cardinals snagging Ethan Holliday, the No. 1 rated prospect in the draft by MLB.com — and son of Cards legend Matt Holliday — seems like an obvious, perfect fit. Holliday the elder played eight seasons in St. Louis, where he hit over 150 home runs and made four All-Star games in the 2010s. Now, just three years after his son Jackson was the top pick in the MLB Draft to the Orioles, his other son Ethan is set to go early in the first round as well.
But the Cards might run into a problem — the Colorado Rockies. No, the Rockies haven't been a problem for opponents on the field in a few years, but they're a prime candidate to take Holliday before the Cardinals get a chance. Unfortunately, he's a dream target for the Rockies as he is the Cardinals, because his dad was a Rockies legend, too. Before his tenure with St. Louis, Matt Holliday spent six years in Colorado, where he hit 130 home runs and made three All-Star games. That's unfortunate.
Ethan Holliday is a dream target for Cardinals
The Holliday family's connection to the Cardinals organization is causing fans to pray for Holliday to drop to pick No. 5, but his on-field abilities are even better than any sentimental value the pick provides.
Holliday is 6-foot-4 with serious pop in his bat and enough mobility to play the field (likely third base) at the big-league level. That's the type of prospect any team would salivate over, and one that fits pretty well into the potential future plans of the Cardinals, especially with an aging Nolan Arenado currently manning the hot corner.
Of course, teams in MLB usually draft best player available, as even the highest draft picks need to develop for a few years in the minors. But if the first four teams don't think Holliday is their guy,
Insiders predict that Rockies will steal Holliday at No. 4
Someone distract the Rockies front office for a few days and convince them that they don't actually want to draft Holliday.
Unfortunately, it sounds like the worst-kept secret in the draft is how infatuated the Rockies are with Holliday. Both MLB.com and ESPN mention the connection between Holliday and the Rockies in their mock drafts, which both predict them to select the 18 year-old at No. 4. Of course, draft season is filled with smokescreens, so take every report with a grain of salt... but Colorado's interest in Holliday sounds, unforutnately, very real.
If that happens, the Cardinals would have to look elsewhere. There will be plenty of talent on the board no matter who goes in the top four. Maybe the Cards look at Aiva Arquette, the shortstop from Oregon State, or Jamie Arnold, the Florida State pitcher with a lively fastball. At least those picks wouldn't make millenial Cardinals fans feel really, really old, right?