St. Louis Cardinals MLB Draft Profile: RHP Bryce Jarvis

Our next draft profile is about RHP Bryce Jarvis, a stud who has been improving year by year and has the stuff to be a very solid MLB pitcher. Could the St. Louis Cardinals draft him?

In the previous Redbird Rants Mock Draft, I had the St. Louis Cardinals drafting Bryce Jarvis out of Duke University. This is a realistic option for St. Louis and fills a massive need, and it helps that Jarvis is one of my favorite pitchers in this class.

Bryce Jarvis is the son of former Big Leaguer Kevin Jarvis, who even had a few appearances with the St. Louis Cardinals; but stunk it up with a 13.50 ERA in 2005.

Jarvis might not have the best frame in this class, standing at 6’2 and weighing in at about 195 lbs, but he has some filthy stuff and a fastball that sits at about 93-94 mph and can touch 97. He made a massive jump from 2019 to 2020; putting about 4 mph on his fastball after adding about 20 pounds over the offseason.

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In 2019, Jarvis had a swingman role with the Blue Devils and did a solid job; but lost velocity towards the end of the season. He was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 37th round but decided to give it one more year at Duke. That decision paid off since he will likely be a first-rounder this year.

Though the 2020 NCAA Baseball season was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic; Bryce Jarvis was in the midst of a monstrous campaign. He had a 0.67 ERA in four starts and struck out 40 batters as well. He threw a PERFECT GAME against Cornell with 15 strikeouts. Then, Jarvis capped off his season by going head-to-head with potential first-rounder CJ Van Eyk and put together a phenomenal performance allowing 1 hit over seven innings while striking out 12 batters as well.

Jarvis’ repertoire features a plus-curveball with a nasty slider, a pitch he can throw backdoor that is rarely seen in today’s game. He also has a nasty changeup he brings to the table. With the season being canceled and Jarvis not having the opportunity to showcase his skills for the Blue Devils; he has been posting videos of his bullpens to social media as an alternative. He also has been showing his metrics for each pitch as well.

Bryce Jarvis has the opportunity to be the first pitcher to be selected in the first round out of Duke since Marcus Stroman did so in 2012.

I feel with his improving frame, velocity, and repertoire he can be molded into a very solid pitcher by whatever team drafts him (fingers-crossed that it’s the Cardinals).