Cardinals Land 'Do-It-All' Phenom In New Draft Prediction

We are quickly approaching the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft and rumors and speculation continues to pick up about who the St. Louis Cardinals could potentially take.

Mock drafts pop up on a daily basis at this point and one guy who has been suggested a lot for the Cardinals' No. 5 pick is high school shortstop Eli Willits out of Oklahoma. Another example of this was CBS Sports' Mike Axisa's mock draft.

"No. 5. Cardinals: SS Eli Willits, Fort Cobb-Broxton HS (OK)," Axisa said. "Slot value: $8,134,800. St. Louis was a winner on draft lottery day. The team moved up from the No. 13 pick to No. 5, which will be their highest selection since taking J.D. Drew with the No. 5 pick in 1998. My guess -- I emphasize this is just a guess -- is the Cardinals hope one of Anderson or Arnold gets here, which is not the case in our mock draft. With the top college arms off the board, Willits is our mock pick.

"His father, Reggie, played six big-league seasons from 2006-11 and has spent the last several years as a coach in both the majors and at the college level. Eli will not turn 18 until December, making him one of the youngest players in the draft class, and he's a switch-hitting do-it-all player with great baseball smarts. Willits has many, many fans in the game. Evaluators love him."

He's the No. 5-ranked prospect in this draft class by MLB.com and seems like an obvious pick if one of the top arms (Kade Anderson, Jamie Arnold, or Seth Hernandez) don't drop.