Sunday afternoon, Kyle Leahy pitched yet another great performance, going 6 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits, while striking out a career-high 9 batters and only walking 1. On June 17th, Kyle Leahy entered his start against the San Diego Padres with a 4.64 ERA, and I, among many others, questioned whether or not this experiment of converting Leahy back into a starter at the big league level was plausible and if he was capable of giving the Cardinals a fighting chance on his turn. Since then, Leahy has made 7 starts, pitching to a 1.69 ERA in 37.1 IP. This drops his full-season ERA to 3.55.
During Leahy’s start, I was curious and wondered what his performance numbers looked like over this stretch, and when I looked at his profile on MLB.com, I noticed that Leahy was drafted in the 17th round of the 2018 MLB Amateur Draft. This, to me, is even more unbelievable to witness the results the Cardinals are getting from a late-round draft pick. Surely, this has to be one of the best 17th-round picks in Cardinals history? So, I researched because I’m a deranged baseball fan. I went over to the baseball almanac, which has listed every player drafted by the Cardinals since 1965; here’s what I found:
17th Round Picks since 1965
1965 – Bruce Hinkel
1966 – Dale Reed
1967 – John Carroll
1968 – George Greer
1969 – Andres Frank
1970 – Joe Ford
1971 – John Park
1972 – Gary Hernandez
1973 – Ronald Aront
1974 – Michael Murphy
1975 – Randy Rhodes
1976 – Frank Marsalan
1977 – Richard Murray – Debuted for Giants in 1980, played in 57 Games
1978 – Mark Smith – Debuted for Athletics in 1983, pitched in 8 games
1979 – Tony Hudson
1980 – Paul Cherry
1981 – Keith Gilliam
1982 – Ted Carson
1983 – Chuck McGrath
1984 – Joe Murtagh
1985 – Jim Puzey
1986 – Scott Hamilton
1987 – Kevin Robinson
1988 – David Richardson
1989 – Danny Davis
1990 – Ricky Kimball
1991 – Ron Warner
1992 – Scott Lair
1993 – Travis Welch
1994 – Mark Roettgen
1995 – Britt Reames – Debuted for Cardinals in 2000, pitched 6 seasons for STL, MTL, OAK, PIT. 101 GP 5.28 ERA
1996 – Keith Gallagher
1997 – Tim Davis
1998 – Michael Gargano
1999 – Michael Perkins
2000 – Kaulana Kuhaulua
2001 – Josh Merrigan
2002 – Chad Clark
2003 – Kevin House
2004 – Chris Noonan
2005 – Michael Cooper
2006 – Nathan Southard
2007 – Matt Arburr
2008 – Joshua Hester
2009 – Jonathan Rodriguez
2010 – Corderius Dodd
2011 – Dutch Deol
2012 – Christopher Perry
2013 – Richie Pedroza
2014 – Dustin Beggs
2015 – Chris Chinea
2016 – Matthew Ellis
2017 – Will Latcham
2018 – Kyle Leahy – Debuted for Cardinals in 2023, 117 GP, 3.62 ERA
2019 – Michael YaSenka
2020 – N/A
2021 – Elijah Cabell
2022 – Brody Moore
2023 – Trey Paige
2024 – Brandt Thompson
2025 – Cameron Nickens
Only 4 players in Cardinals history drafted in the 17th round have made an MLB debut. Kyle Leahy is only the 2nd player in Cardinals history to debut for St. Louis from that round, joining pitcher Britt Reames from the 1995 draft (the year I was born).
What Kyle Leahy is doing from a talent standpoint isn’t all that unusual; we’ve seen the arm talent for the last couple of seasons. To get the value of a potential mid-rotation starter out of the 17th round is an incredible coup for the Cardinals, considering that before the 2024 season the Cardinals paid 20+ million dollars for Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson to get this type of production. From how St. Louis was able to bring Leahy into the organization, these are the types of marginal wins that can have long-term payoffs that will be cost-effective and allow the DeWitt ownership group to focus their financial resources on more valuable assets. Another Randy Flores win- who could have seen that coming?
How many 17th-rounders’ names do you recognize? I was at 7. Let me know in the comments!
-thanks for reading
