photo: Brian Holiday (Oklahoma State University Athletics)
The Cardinal Nation’s Top 50 prospect countdown for 2025 reaches no. 30 with the first pitcher taken by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2024 draft. How fast can Brian Holiday advance? Free report!
Position: Starting Pitcher
Age: 21 years old
Bats/Throws: R/R
Height/Weight: 5’11, 203 pounds
Acquired: Selected in the third round of the 2024 First-Year Player Draft, 80th overall
Hometown: Tampa, Florida
College: Oklahoma State University
Opened 2024: Florida Complex League Cardinals (rookie – inactive)
Primary team in 2024: Florida Complex League Cardinals (rookie – inactive)
Finished 2024: Florida Complex League Cardinals (rookie – inactive)
Prior Top 50 rankings – not applicable
Click on the above photo to be taken to Holiday’s player page at The Cardinal Nation, with additional biography and history information.
2024 highlights
Did not pitch professionally
Link to Holiday’s career stats
Blake Newberry’s scouting report
Blake’s ranking – no. 29
(current grade/future grade)
| FB | SL | CB | CH | Command | FV |
| 45/50 | 50/55 | 40/45 | 40/50 | 45/55 | 35 |
Brian Holiday is a polished, undersized, pitchability righty who doesn’t have loud stuff but put up great numbers in college and on the Cape while throwing a ton of strikes.
He’s a fastball heavy pitcher with his four-seamer accounting for over 50% of his pitches in his final season at Oklahoma State but he also throws a slider, a curveball, and a changeup.
The fastball sits 92 mph with just over 18 inches of induced vertical break and is at its most effective when it’s thrown up in the zone. That’s a pretty good fastball shape given the pitch’s release characteristics. But how well the pitch plays in pro ball will depend on if the pitch can maintain that shape (pitchers often lose a little bit of IVB when they start using the pro ball) and if the pitch can gain some extra velocity.
Holiday is athletic on the mound so I wouldn’t be shocked if the Cardinals were able to coax an extra tick or two from his fastball.
The righty’s go-to secondary offering is his slider, which sits 82 mph with two inches of riding life and 4-5 inches of glove side break on average. In his final collegiate season, this pitch generated a 42% whiff rate and 44% chase rate. While I don’t think the pitch will be that effective in pro ball, it does profile as average or better going forward.
Holiday didn’t throw his curveball or his changeup much and neither pitch has an outstanding movement profile. The curveball gets heavy downward action but can be a bit loopy due to its lack of velocity (76 mph on average) and the changeup doesn’t have tremendous fading action.
The fastball and the slider look like solid pitches, but the curveball and the changeup lag a bit behind, and the stuff overall isn’t too loud. The real plus is Holiday’s above average command which enabled him to walk just 4.2% of the batters he faced in 2024.
That gives Holiday a solid floor as a prospect and should help him get through Single-A and High-A hitters with relative ease. I want to see how his stuff plays against upper level hitters and if he has any tweaks and improvements in store when he first steps on the mound in the Cardinals organization.
Summary: Brian Holiday is a polished pitchability righty with above average command, a good track record of success, and a solid fastball/slider combination.
Brian Walton’s environmental impact report
Brian’s ranking – no. 30
Background
The 2024 All-Big 12 selection began as a reliever at two schools before joining the Oklahoma State Cowboys, where his coach was Josh Holliday, brother of former Cardinal Matt (different spelling and unrelated to Brian).
In his junior year, Holiday allowed 82 hits and 19 walks with a conference-best 128 strikeouts in 113 innings.
Sporting an old-fashioned high leg kick and 12-6 curveball, overall Holiday was 24-4 with a 2.63 ERA (253 2/3 IP), six saves, and 343 strikeouts in 55 games (33 starts) in three collegiate seasons with Oklahoma State (2024), Central Florida Junior College (2023) and Florida Southwestern State Junior College (2022).
At Central Florida, Holiday led national JUCO pitchers in strikeouts and helped his team win the Junior College World Series, for which he was named Most Outstanding Pitcher.
On draft day, Cardinals scouting director Randy Flores called Holiday “competitive, intriguing and compelling”, saying that the right-hander “gained momentum and continued to improve”.
The pool amount for his third-round pick was $964,500. Given Holiday’s no. 223 pre-draft ranking among eligible players by MLB Pipeline, it was not surprising he signed for less, $800,000. The Cardinals used the savings to fund overslot bonuses given to first-rounder JJ Wetherholt, seventh-rounder Andrew Dutkanych and more.
2024 recap
A one-month delay in the timing of the draft and organizations being reluctant to have their newest-signed arms pitch after a month or more off means that we have very little information on first-year drafted pitchers to evaluate.
Prior to the sweeping changes to the minors post-COVID, newly signed players would report in late June, and most would appear in game action that summer. That was usually in Jupiter with the Florida Complex League or Florida State League, making it easy to get eyes on the new recruits.
That is no longer the case. Now, the draft is a month later and the FCL schedule ends a month earlier. All this means that most pitchers do not open their professional career until next spring. Such is the case for Holiday.
2025 outlook
The fact that Holiday was the first pitcher taken by the Cardinals in the 2024 draft suggests that if any hurler skips Class-A Palm Beach to open his professional career, it would probably be him. Even so, I doubt it.
More likely, Holiday will open in the Beach Birds’ rotation, and if all goes exceptionally well, he could move up to High-A Peoria by the second half.
Future outlook
Future Value: 35
Role: Up/down depth/middle relief
Risk: High
In this case, the risk is “high” for the simple reason that Holiday has yet to throw a professional pitch in game action. Still, it would be very positive for Holiday and the Cardinals if he is able to gain all his A-ball experience in 2025 and open 2026 at Double-A Springfield.
That could accelerate his St. Louis debut to late 2027, just prior to his initial Rule 5 protection decision coming due. Whether Holiday becomes a back end of the rotation starter, or a reliever is basically a coin toss at this early date.
I tend to lean toward the bullpen if for no other reason than Holiday’s under-six-foot stature. Then again, 5’10 Sonny Gray serves as a present reminder that every rule has its exception – if the talent and good fortune are there.
MLB debut: Late 2027
Rule 5 eligible: 2027
Exclusively for members of The Cardinal Nation
Our 2025 Top 50 series continues
To see the entire list of top Cardinals prospects, grading scales and remaining article schedule, click here. This includes the Top 50 countdown and 11 in-depth, follow-up articles breaking down the list.
50 Days, 50 Nights, 50 St. Louis Cardinals Prospects for 2025
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Brian Walton can be reached via email at brian@thecardinalnation.com. Follow Brian on X/Twitter.
Follow Blake Newberry on X/Twitter @bt_newberry.
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