Benjamin Hochman | Post-Dispatch
Sports columnist
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I don’t want to write this column.
I’ve been misled too many times. Alex Reyes. Dylan Carlson. Jordan Walker. Why won’t this guy be any different?
But years after gushing from this keyboard about previous top Cardinals prospects, here I am, enamored again. For months, really, I’ve been able to picture this player at Busch Stadium.
And on Sunday afternoon, as the Cardinals readied at Wrigley Field for their last game of 2025, probable 2026 rookie JJ Wetherholt visited Busch for the first time.
The next time the Cardinals play at Busch Stadium, Wetherholt could very well be in the lineup.
“(Busch Stadium) is pretty cool,” Wetherholt told the Post-Dispatch, while he sat in the Cardinals’ home dugout. “I’ve never been here before, so just to be able to actually see the stadium, like, I didn’t realize how big the stands were — and the layout of it. I mean, the backdrop is beautiful. To be able to kind of see the city, too, is cool. And then the facilities in here, it’s nice to be able to see that — even though I haven’t made it to this level yet, it’s cool to know, like, this is what’s at the top. Just more to work for.”
Wetherholt was one of 25 minor leaguers who spent Sunday at the stadium (15 others came two weeks ago). The guys got to see the facilities and chat with some team employees, notably Rob Cerfolio, the Cardinals’ assistant general manager for player development and player performance.
Coincidentally, the infielder Wetherholt earned a big honor this weekend: He was named the Class AAA International League’s top Major League Baseball prospect. Not bad, considering he was recently named the Class AA Texas League’s Most Valuable Player.
Like famed writer George Will said of Stan Musial: “It didn’t matter where he was — he just hit.”
The 23-year-old Wetherholt, who was the No. 7 pick in the 2024 MLB draft, is now the No. 6 prospect in all of baseball, per MLB.com. He’s from a Pennsylvania town called Mars, and it’s as if he’s from another planet.
In 2025, he started the season at Class AA Springfield (Missouri). He hit .300 with an absurd .425 on-base percentage in his 62 games. His sweet lefty swing tallied an .892 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). And he walked more times (44) than he struck out (40).
“He got drafted last year and my first thought was — this kid is impressive,” fellow Cardinals prospect Joshua Baez, who played with JJ in Springfield, said Sunday from Busch. “He just carried it into this year. We all root for one another. … He just continued to excel and just to be himself.”
In Wetherholt’s 47 games in Triple-A, he hit even better than in Double-A. His batting average was perhaps a harbinger for his baseball future — .314. He slugged his way to an OPS of .978. And he tallied 104 total bases — the exact amount he did for Springfield (in 15 fewer games).
“Individually, I was kind of just happy with the way my body held up for the most part — I was able to play a good amount of games,” said Wetherholt, who played college ball at West Virginia and, in 2022, was teammates with current Cards center fielder Victor Scott II. “And I was able to kind of get back to my old self of stealing, got a couple bunt hits, which was cool, driving the ball everywhere. And then, you know, I had one month that I kind of started to hit for some more power (seven homers in July but no more than four in any other month).
“But I think overall, really, just the consistency of my game was definitely the thing I was most happy with.”
Wetherholt told me he hasn’t been given a specific position for 2026. He’ll spend the winter working on both third base and second base. He said he’d love to have “a certain position that I can really dial in,” but we’ll have to see what potential moves Chaim Bloom, the new baseball boss, has in store with Nolan Arenado, Nolan Gorman and others.
But Wetherholt sure seems ready for the next level, and the only level he’s yet to conquer is baseball’s highest.
“Talking about the process of being a winning player,” Cerfolio said Sunday, “it’s easy to see on Twitter what a guy did in a game, but for me, it’s really more about assessing: Did they win that (whole) day? And as many days as possible? I think the fun thing about JJ is that he kind of helps set the standard to what you want there. I think the best teams, whether it was my own personal playing days or my last decade with the previous organization (of Cleveland), when your best player is your best worker and has your best process, that’s how you standardize and scale excellence.
“(Cleveland All-Stars) Jose Ramirez and Steven Kwan are the epitome of guys that I’ve been around that everything they do pulls people around them up. And their everyday actions set the example. Like, that’s what winning culture is. It’s not a book or a sign on the wall. It’s your best people modeling the best attributes and actions every day. And I think that’s what’s awesome about several of the guys that we have that sit in the dugout here (in St. Louis) and then this wave of guys like JJ and other young players coming. …
“Just who he is as a teammate, how he goes about his business, he’s always looking for something to get better at. That’s the type of players that you want to have 100 of. Outside of his talent, which everybody sees at 7 o’clock, it’s really the process that happens behind the scenes that’s really impressive.”
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Benjamin Hochman | Post-Dispatch
Sports columnist
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