ST. LOUIS -- Considering the incredible, against-all-odds baseball journey that Brian Holiday has been on over the past three years -- going from being a walk-on at tiny Florida SouthWestern State College to the even smaller College of Central Florida and finally to Oklahoma State -- it was understandable why he experienced a state of shock on Monday when he became the third-round pick of the Cardinals in the 2024 MLB Draft.
Overlooked to the point that he didn’t have one scholarship offer to play college baseball after starring at Land O’ Lakes High in North Tampa, Fla., Holiday sat almost motionless and in amazement among the six family members and friends with him in Florida on Monday when his name popped up on the computer screen as the No. 80 overall pick in the Draft.
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“It’s kind of hard to put into words because I was more in shock than anything,” admitted the 5-foot-11, 203-pound right-handed pitcher. “It’s just crazy to think about where it started and where I am now.”
Where Holiday is now is in a Cardinals organization that fell in love with his fiery competitiveness -- a trait that helped him thrive even though most scouts and college coaches originally thought he was too small. Holiday's grit helped him win a JUCO national championship and become the Most Outstanding Player of the NJCAA World Series in 2023. It also played a role in him getting to Oklahoma State, where his final college performance saw him strike out 10 Florida Gators, including No. 6 overall pick Jac Caglianone.
“If we were to make a decision based off one game, we probably have a bad process,” Cardinals assistant general manager/director of scouting Randy Flores said. “But I do think that [that performance] was in line, and Brian continued to gain momentum and he continued to improve. When you look at the typical player who came from a junior college to that conference and faces that competition, he was different.
“His competitiveness, his ability to improve, his feel -- he was someone without the typical year-over-year established track record of someone from the SEC, Pac 12, Big 12 or Big 10. This was someone who we were [excited] about how they [improved] this year and we’re excited for his future.”
The Cardinals, who nabbed shortstop JJ Wetherholt with the No. 7 pick on Sunday, didn’t let a lack of size sway them from the players that they liked in the MLB Draft. Holiday and fifth-round pick Braden Davis out of Oklahoma are just 5-foot-11 and far from the prototype that St. Louis leaned on for years with tall right-handers such as Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright and Michael Wacha. In the fourth round, the Cards drafted undersized catcher Ryan Campos out of Arizona State, and they nabbed 5-foot-8 Oklahoma outfielder Bryce Madron in the 10th round.
“As someone who played baseball in a time where you were looking at the Scott Rolens and the Albert Pujols and the size of those players, there are players who are able to get a lot out of their body even without the size,” said Flores, a lefty reliever on the Cardinals’ 2006 World Series championship team. “On the pitching side, there is a benefit to the release height and angle that is different from the 6-foot-4, 6-foot-5, long-levered, long-extension sinker-baller. [Holiday and Davis] have profiles that we were intrigued with, along with scouting reports that raved about their competitiveness.”
Holiday, 21, had to use his competitive nature to battle his way through one-year stops at Florida SouthWestern State (where he worked to improve his fastball from 91 to 95 mph) and College of Central Florida (where he got experience as a starter and a reliever). At CFC, he went 10-1 with an eye-popping 141 strikeouts in 88 innings. At the NJCAA World Series, he picked up a win, a save and 23 strikeouts in 9 1/3 innings to nab the Most Outstanding Player award.
That attracted the attention of Oklahoma State coach Josh Holliday (no relation, different spelling), brother of Cardinals Hall of Famer Matt Holliday. At OSU, Holiday quickly emerged as the staff ace and struck out 14 in a win over the University of Houston on May 18. He threw a complete game in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament against UCF and throttled Florida -- two schools that never recruited him while in college -- in the NCAA Super Regionals. Against the Gators, he allowed just two hits while striking out 10 -- including the highly-touted Caglianone.
“I was attacking him like I would anybody else because I don’t care who is in the box, who I’m going against or how many fans are there,” Holiday said. “I’m doing whatever I can to attack that guy, hit my spots and get the guy out.”