photo: JJ Wetherholt (Abbie Schultz/Palm Beach Cardinals)
In a free report, The Cardinal Nation’s Top 50 prospect countdown for 2025 concludes with a shortstop who comes with very high expectations following his selection in the first round of the 2024 Draft. How soon will JJ Wetherholt reach St. Louis and at what position will he play?
Position: Shortstop
Age: 22 years old
Bats/Throws: L/R
Height/Weight: 5’10, 190 pounds
Acquired: Selected in the first round, seventh overall, in the 2024 First-Year Player Draft
Hometown: Mars, Pennsylvania
College: West Virginia
Opened 2024: Palm Beach Cardinals (Class-A)
Primary team in 2024: Palm Beach Cardinals (Class-A)
Finished 2024: Palm Beach Cardinals (Class-A)
Prior Top 50 rankings – not applicable
Click on the above photo to be taken to Wetherholt’s player page at The Cardinal Nation, with additional biography and history information.
2024 highlights
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | HR | SB | CS | BB% | K% | BABIP | wRC+ |
| 126 | 0.295 | 0.405 | 0.400 | 0.805 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 12.7% | 11.9% | 0.326 | 137 |
Link to Wetherholt’s career stats
Blake Newberry’s scouting report
Blake’s ranking – no. 1
(current grade/future grade)
| Hit | Power | Run | Arm | Field | FV |
| 50/65 | 40/55 | 55/55 | 50/50 | 45/55 | 60 |
JJ Wetherholt is the clear top prospect in the Cardinals system with Quinn Mathews and Tink Hence a tier below, in my estimation. The 2024 first round pick stands out with no major holes in his game, profiling as a potential above average second baseman who is currently playing shortstop. He shows a ton of power potential, makes contact at an extremely high rate, and has the best plate discipline in the Cardinals’ system.
Wetherholt stuck out in under 12% of his plate appearances in Single-A after striking out at just 10% in his final season at West Virginia. While the ability to make contact is impressive, perhaps the most impressive part of Wetherholt’s hit tool is his ability to consistently hit the ball at optimal launch angles. He is a line drive machine and hits hard, powerful fly balls instead of high fly balls and pop ups. His innate feel for hitting is simply incredible and allows him to hit the ball consistently and with authority.
Wetherholt has tremendous raw power for someone with a 5’10”, 190-pound frame. He posted a max exit velocity of 112 mph in college to go with a 109.2 mph max exit velocity in just 126 plate appearances in Palm Beach in 2024. That’s above average raw power and Wetherholt gets to it consistently with his feel for finding the barrel.
More than half of Wetherholt’s batted balls were hit above 95 mph at both the collegiate and professional level. Many of his batted balls were also hit in the air, either a fly ball or a line drive, allowing him to maximize his power. The only real limitation in Wetherholt’s profile, which prevents me from considering his power to be a true plus tool, is his struggle to pull the ball in the air. Still, he has more than enough power to fill the gaps with doubles and clear the fence with regularity.
I’ve already touched on Wetherholt’s better-than-plus hit tool and his above average power but my favorite part of his offensive game is his plate discipline, and more specifically, his swing decisions. Often when hitters have high walk rates, they are patient to the point of being passive. Brendan Donovan and Lars Nootbaar are examples.
What that means is that while they don’t chase pitches outside the zone, they also don’t attack pitches inside the zone with any kind of frequency. That doesn’t necessarily show a discerning eye at the plate as much as an overall passive approach.
This isn’t the case for Wetherholt, who rarely chases, as evidenced by his chase rate in the 98th percentile in Single-A. He isn’t passive, though, as he also had a 78th percentile swing rate against pitches in the zone.
What this means is that he can be aggressive without swinging at bad pitches. This is the ideal plate approach and it’s especially so for someone able to hit the ball hard with such consistency. Few hitters can be this aggressive in the zone and this patient outside of the zone, but Wetherholt has a truly discerning eye and that allows him to crush pitches in the zone while also walking at a high rate. It’s probably his best attribute and it takes his offensive game to the next level.
The 22-year-old has a good chance to be a true impact hitter at the highest level with an ability to both hit for average and hit for power while getting on base at a high clip.
His bat is the draw, but Wetherholt is also good defensively. He is playing shortstop currently and has shown flashes of being a solid defender at the position. Even so, his best position is likely to be second base. While it makes sense to let him continue to develop at the most difficult and valuable infield position, I expect to see him switch to second base by the time he reaches Triple-A to prepare him for his eventual role at the major league level. He has good hands and solid, though not outstanding, range which should help him be an above average second baseman going forward.
This gives Wetherholt a complete profile as a prospect with few, if any, holes in his game. He projects to be a player that can move through the system quickly and make a high-level impact in MLB. Wetherholt had some hamstring issues in college, which is a likely explanation for how he fell to the seventh spot in the draft, so there may be some risk there, but, as a prospect, Wetherholt checks all the boxes.
Summary: JJ Wetherholt is clearly a tier above every other prospect in the system and brings a well-rounded game with no major holes and the potential to be an impact bat who can stick up the middle defensively.
Brian Walton’s environmental impact report
Brian’s ranking – no. 1
Background
The Cardinals had to be absolutely delighted when one of the top players, if not the top player, in the 2024 Draft was still available when their first pick at number seven overall came up.
Heading into the draft, Wetherholt was ranked as the number one eligible prospect according to Fangraphs, third per Baseball America and The Athletic and fourth at MLB Pipeline.
One of Baseball America’s final mock drafts had Wetherholt going to the Cleveland Guardians with the number one pick. Recurring hamstring issues that caused him to miss 24 of 60 games and play often as designated hitter in 2024 may have contributed to Wetherholt’s falling to the Cardinals.
The 22-year-old’s excellent bat to ball skills are evidenced by his NCAA-leading .449 batting average in 2023. That dropped to “just” .331 in 2024. Wetherholt is a base-stealing threat with his 36 stolen bases tops in the Big 12 in 2023, when the then-sophomore was the conference Player of the Year.
Wetherholt, a Pittsburgh-area native, played three seasons for the Mountaineers, slashing .370/.468/.625/1.093 with 29 home runs, 49 doubles, 129 RBI, 148 runs and a 1:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio with 82 walks in 145 career games. In 2022, he was a teammate of Memphis outfielder Victor Scott.
The pool amount for his pick is $6,823,700 and he signed for $76,300 more, an even $6.9 million. That represented just over 2/3 of the organization’s total spending in the 2024 Draft.
“Looking at his batting line and the back of the baseball card is that he’s hit and he’s always hit,” Cardinals Assistant General Manager and Director of Scouting Randy Flores said. “What was impressive to our scouting group this summer was that he did it against the best competition and he did it while nursing some soreness.
“Often times in this day and age, it’s natural that players only want to play when they are 100 percent. But even though he was limited physically this summer, he was taking at bats and DHing,” Flores concluded.
Prior to his professional debut, I asked Wetherholt about his readiness. He replied, “My hamstring is good. I’m really healthy now.”
2024 recap
Wetherholt did seem to be ready to play as he appeared at shortstop in 24 regular season games and just five at designated hitter for Class-A Palm Beach. Given his advanced bat, there was considerable speculation he would have opened at High-A Peoria instead, but perhaps due to his earlier injury and the superior medical and training facilities in Jupiter, the Cardinals took the more conservative route with Wetherholt in 2024.
#STLCards first-rounder JJ Wetherholt recorded a pair of hits and three RBIs during Saturday's contest.@USAFRecruiting #AimHigh pic.twitter.com/lcBx5OxYe7
— Palm Beach Cardinals (@GoPBCardinals) August 13, 2024
That proved to be a good decision as he started his professional career slowly. Over 21 August contests with Palm Beach, he slashed just .219/.356/.288/.644. However, in September, he heated up with an impressive 1.247 OPS including nine RBI and eight runs scored over the final six games of the regular season. That included Florida State League Player of the Week recognition for the period ending September 8.
Overall, Wetherholt slashed .295/.405/.400/.805 in 126 plate appearances over 29 regular season games and logged the highest average exit velocity of any Palm Beach hitter at 91.9 mph. His strikeout and walk rates were excellent at 12.7% and 11.9%, respectively. Not surprisingly, he was conservative on the bases, with two steals in two attempts. His wRC+ of 137 was 37% above the Florida State League average.
JJ Wetherholt HOMERS for Palm Beach in his first at-bat of the playoffs 🚀 pic.twitter.com/ajm8cvjsNl
— Milb Central (@milb_central) September 10, 2024
As the Beach Birds plowed their way to the Florida State League championship, Wetherholt led the way. In 23 plate appearances over five playoff games, the shortstop slashed .421/.522/.684/1.206. Wetherholt hit a triple and a home run, drew four walks, plated six and scored four times.
In Baseball America’s Best Tools assessment for the Cardinals system, Wetherholt led the way with three designations. They are “Best Hitter for Average”, “Best Strike Zone Discipline” and “Best Power Hitter”. Not a bad triumvirate!
2025 outlook
2025 should be “full speed ahead” for Wetherholt.
Due to his status, I expect him to receive a big-league spring training camp invitation and play a major role in the Cardinals’ Spring Training Breakout Game in March.
Once he became established as a professional, Wetherholt demonstrated that he is more advanced than Class-A pitchers. So, assuming good health in the spring, he should start the 2025 regular season with High-A Peoria. There should be no roadblocks for a further promotion to Double-A Springfield during the season, whenever his performance indicates he is ready.
To me, Wetherholt seems an ideal player to send to the Arizona Fall League, but that may depend on where he stands physically after 140 games yet to be played.
Future outlook
Future Value: 60
Role: All-Star
Risk: Moderate
I asked a professional scout his impressions of Wetherholt.
“I’ve only watched video of him,” the evaluator said. “But I think he can be a really good everyday middle infielder for St. Louis.”
That seems to be the consensus at this still-early date.
An aggressive timetable would have Wetherholt play at High-A and Double-A in 2025, reach Triple-A in 2026 and debut with St. Louis late that season. Normally, with three minor league levels still ahead for him to master, I would be more conservative and peg his MLB arrival in 2027, well before his initial Rule 5 decision would be required. However, this is a special player, so I will go with the fast path projection.
One would think that no later than 2026, the Cardinals will start to expose Wetherholt to semi-regular play at second base to prepare him for his eventual place beside shortstop Masyn Winn in the St. Louis infield.
Interestingly, not everyone sees it that way. In their projected 2028 St. Louis lineup, Baseball America lists Wetherholt on the other side of Winn, as the starting third baseman, with Thomas Saggese at second.
However it plays out, in the interim, Wetherholt will be the most-watched player in the system, at least until the Cardinals select fifth overall in the 2025 Draft.
MLB debut: Late 2026
Rule 5 draft 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 and The Cardinal Nation on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky.
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