photo: JJ Wetherholt (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)

In a FREE article, the identity of The Cardinal Nation’s no. 1 prospect for 2026 should be no surprise, JJ Wetherholt. The St. Louis Cardinals organization’s Player of the Year is poised to make his MLB debut. What is the infielder’s ceiling?

JJ Wetherholt

Position: Shortstop/third base/second base
Age: 23 years old
Bats/Throws: L/R
Height/Weight: 5’10, 195 pounds

Acquired: Selected in the first round, seventh overall, in the 2024 First-Year Player Draft
Hometown: Mars, Pennsylvania
College: West Virginia

Opened 2025: Springfield Cardinals (Double-A)
Primary team in 2025: Springfield Cardinals (Double-A)
Finished 2025: Memphis Redbirds (Triple-A)

Prior Top 50 rankings – 2025 #1

Click on the above photo to be taken to Wetherholt’s player page at The Cardinal Nation, with additional biography and history information.

2025 highlights

Link to Wetherholt’s career stats

Kyle Reis’ scouting report

Kyle’s ranking – no. 1

If a prospect can be both incredibly boring and incredibly exciting all at once, then that prospect is James Tiberius Wetherholt… No, I mean Jonathan David Wetherholt.

It’s very simple with Wetherholt; he just doesn’t do anything wrong. It’s crazy. He’s as polished of a position player prospect as I’ve ever seen in the Cardinals minors. I remember thinking the same thing about Brendan Donovan at the end of the 2022 season, but Wetherholt takes this to another level. Wetherholt doesn’t make mistakes in the field or on the bases or at the plate. He’s pesky and athletic and smart. Wetherholt knows exactly who he is, while, at the same time, trying to be more and more and better and better. Everything about who he is and what he does just feels so rare, especially in this day and age of baseball taught in labs as much as it’s learned on the diamond.

Before we get into the raving part of this write-up, let’s sober up a little.

I spent a lot of time thinking about Dylan Carlson’s first full season of 2021. I also spent a lot of time thinking about Stephen Piscotty’s first 500-600 at-bats between the 2015 and 2016 seasons. And, man, the second half of Jordan Walker in 2023 once the Cardinals recalled him from Triple-A after sending him down following a Major League debut that he wasn’t ready for, and that plays constantly in my mind.

I mean, if I told you that Wetherholt was going to hit .266/.343/.437 with 31 doubles and 18 homers like Carlson did during his rookie season, then you’d be happy, I’d hope. Same goes if I were to tell you that he’ll hit .308/.373/.488 with 29 doubles and 14 homers in his first 501 plate appearances like Stephen Piscotty did. Or, if he hits .277/.346/.455 with 16 doubles and 14 homers over 387 plate appearances after June 1^st like Jordan Walker did in 2023, that’d be thrilling. By the way, if this falls short of your expectations, then you’re absolutely what the British in the TV shows that I watch call “mental”.

I bring up these examples for two reasons. First, what you won’t see from Wetherholt that you saw from all three of his predecessors is a strikeout rate at-or-above 20%. Wetherholt is a more advanced hitter across the board than that group. Second, I bring it up because it’s really not about what Wetherholt does in his first season in the Majors. I can promise you he’ll be above league average at the plate. It’s really about what comes AFTER his first full season in the Majors. These versions of these prospects in their debuts ABSOLUTELY deserved the hype that they received. While Piscotty did recover for one season with Oakland, it was what came next that brought the disappointment.

The Major League season is a grind, and the rushed nature of prospect development and the lack of patience by organizations has steadily increased the gap in talent between the Majors and the Minors.

Just a little something to chew on…

With Wetherholt, I just keep coming back to his polish and baseball I.Q. This young man just “GETS” it. His intangibles alone would have gotten him drafted in the top 50 even if all his skills took a step back. I cannot stress loudly enough how much Cardinals’ fans are going to love his makeup.

The only real hole in Wetherholt’s profile is his ability to pull the baseball over the fence for power. However, at some point, you can’t really care about that, especially when you are talking about a middle infielder whose carry tool is his ability to hit. It hasn’t influenced how good he’s been so far, so let’s not lose our minds over it. It’ll surely be the crux of what level of success or what version of either Brendan Donovan or Matt Carpenter (and hopefully not Stephen Piscotty or Dylan Carlson long term) that Wetherholt becomes. When you do everything else at the plate as well as Wetherholt does, pull power really doesn’t matter. Lacking in pull power may stop him from becoming a superstar in the long run, but it won’t stop him from becoming an impact bat capable of living in the 15%-30% above-average range at the plate during the prime of his career.

This sentiment doubled when you take into account Wetherholt’s natural ability to hit the absolute crap out of the ball to the opposite field. It’s line drive power down the third base line and loud and often over-the-fence power into the left-center gap. His power to the opposite field is the loudest, most natural, and most unique part of his profile. It has been his calling card since his early days at West Virginia. It’s pure and gorgeous, and it’s why I’m not exactly worried about how he’ll perform against left-handed pitchers with elite breaking stuff at the next level as compared to the Major League average.

The other reason that I don’t think that I care at all about pull-power with Wetherholt is that he just so freaking good at everything else. Sure, there might be some issues at the next level with heaters high and outside and both heaters and breaking pitches low and in, but they’ll be minimal. That’s because Wetherholt hardly swings and misses, and he makes smart swing decisions as compared to nearly everyone alive. He wasn’t challenged nearly as much at Triple-A as he was in Double-A oddly enough (I’m sorry that I don’t have more time to get into this), but we know from the Triple-A data that Wetherholt combines the ability to find the barrel, hit the ball hard, make plus swing decisions, and work a count as well as any hitter who took a Triple-A at-bat in 2025. Other prospects might do one of these things or a couple of these things better than Wetherholt did, but few had Wetherholt’s total package.

Wetherholt’s ability to hit the ball hard with an advanced understanding of the zone is what separates him from the prospect that Dylan Carlson was. Wetherholt hits the ball harder more consistently than Carlson did, even if both have/had some concerns about the high-end exit velocities. Wetherholt’s understanding of the zone, his ability to lift the ball, and his contact rates specifically in-zone separate him from the prospect that Jordan Walker was from a polish standpoint.

Which, of course, says nothing for Wetherholt’s ability to put backspin on the baseball. It isn’t the biggest deal on Earth, but it could be a true game-changer in his profile if he does find more pull power along the lines. Wetherholt can get a little too passive now and then in-zone, and some would like to see him make more impactful contact within the heart of the zone, but I feel confident that we’ll see both things tick up for JJ once he is challenged more at the major league level. He’s a more gifted baseball player than someone like Lars Nootbaar, and I’m confident that he’ll learn that being passive at the plate only hurts his profile, which Nootbaar has yet to learn. Then again, if Wetherholt doesn’t learn this, then he’ll never be the hitter that he’s capable of being.

As I write this, I find myself liking Wetherholt more and more. WILD STUFF.

I think what impressed me the most during the 2025 season was how athletic Wetherholt is. There’s this weird sort of… stiffness to his motions, but he’s just so natural at getting himself squared up. This is across the board with base-running, playing defense, and swinging the bat. It’s not as common as you’d think, and that it’s natural with Wetherholt is a huge plus. His combination of athleticism, baseball I.Q, and ability to stay balanced while getting squared up is why I have all the confidence in the world that Wetherholt will be an above-average defender at whatever position or positions that he ends up playing in the Majors.

Like with Brendan Donovan, his arm is better suited for the right side of the infield, but it’s perfectly fine for the left side of the diamond. Sometimes he can even reach deep down and let it loose. If there’s one thing that I’m certain of, it’s that JJ Wetherholt was born to play baseball. Wetherholt could more than handle short at Triple-A, and his defensive prowess is the aspect of his game that is most underrated nationally. He’s still hardly played third, but his work ethic along with his natural abilities make me confident that he’ll figure the position out sooner than later.

The second most underrated aspect of Wetherholt’s game is his speed. He’s not a plus runner, but he’s quick and agile, and he gets good jumps. Since he’s such a smart baseball player, he’s going to take an extra base where he can, and he’s going to steal more than he should for his speed. Some prospects might steal 20+ bases in the minors, then be lucky to reach 10 in the majors even if they get on base. I have confidence that Wetherholt will be able to put up a couple of 15+ stolen base seasons in his prime, and I can’t say that for many of the prospects that appear on this list. That’s in part because I’m not sure how many of them will be able to get on base enough and also because I’m not sure how many of them will be able to steal against MLB caliber catchers.

Anyway, I don’t even really know what I’m saying anymore, so let me square myself up a little bit.

It’s very, VERY simple with Wetherholt. He’s an underestimated athlete who is above-average at basically everything that you’d ask someone to do on the diamond, and he’s more Major League-ready than I’m comfortable admitting. Wetherholt is as equally unflappable as he is a sure bet to have a long MLB career because of how hard he works to make as few mistakes as a baseball player can in this game built on failure. Wetherholt is the prototype for what every Cardinals fan grew up championing: hustle, baseball intelligence, high character, and leaving it all out on the field.

As we enter a new age of Cardinals baseball, there isn’t a more perfect prospect to ring in the new age than JJ Wetherholt, as he represents all that is right with both traditional and modern baseball.

Brian Walton’s environmental impact report

Brian’s ranking – no. 1

It should be no surprise that Wetherholt is our repeat selection as the top prospect in the Cardinals system.

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 by MLB Pipeline.

Recurring hamstring issues that caused him to miss 24 of 60 games at West Virginia and play often as designated hitter in 2024 may have contributed to Wetherholt’s falling to the Cardinals.

Wetherholt’s excellent bat to ball skills were evidenced by his NCAA-leading .449 batting average in 2023. That dropped to “just” .331 in 2024. Wetherholt’s 36 stolen bases were tops in the Big 12 in 2023, when the then-sophomore was 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 Cardinals outfielder Victor Scott.

The pool amount for his pick was $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.

Wetherholt opened his professional career slowly. Over 21 August contests with Low-A 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 led to his 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. His wRC+ of 137 was 37% above the Florida State League average.

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 were “Best Hitter for Average”, “Best Strike Zone Discipline” and “Best Power Hitter”.

2025 recap

Rarely does a first rounder from the year before receive a non-roster invitation to big league spring training, but Wetherholt is not an average player. Once there, he was given a long look, making 26 plate appearances over 10 games. Wetherholt’s slash line was a modest .100/.308/.250/.558.

As the regular season opened, the Cardinals skipped Wetherholt over High-A Peoria. With Double-A Springfield in 275 plate appearances over 62 games, the shortstop slashed .300/.425/.466/.891. He drew more walks (44) than strikeouts taken (40) and was 14-for-16 in stolen base attempts. Defensively, he played in his first 17 professional games at second base.

A few days before his July 11 All-Star Futures Game appearance as the only Cardinals representative, Wetherholt was promoted to Triple-A Memphis. To say the transition to the minors’ highest level went smoothly is an understatement. All Wetherholt did during July was to log an OPS of 1.103, good for Player of the Month honors from the Cardinals organization and The Cardinal Nation.

To conclude 2025, in his total 221 plate appearances over 47 games with the Redbirds, he slashed .314/.416/.562/.978. His 25 extra base hits were three more than he had at Double-A in 64 more plate appearances. Wetherholt struck out 33 times and walked 28 more.

Though Wetherholt officially added third base to his defensive portfolio with Memphis, the preparatory work began while he was still with Springfield. I asked him about it after the season.

“(Farm director) Larry Day, my manager Patrick Anderson and coach Danny Black said they were not dissatisfied with my defense at shortstop but wanted me to become a complete infielder,” Wetherholt said. “They threw out the idea of me playing third base just before the All-Star break.

“I started by learning the footwork, then tried it out in game action after three to four weeks. I then did third base reps and early work two or three times per week (for the remainder of the schedule),” he said.

Though serving as Memphis’ regular shortstop, Wetherholt also played in his first 12 games at third base but just three at second. His diversification focus had been shifted. For his part, the infielder wants to be ready for whatever is asked of him.

“My bat is coming along pretty well, and I was always thought of as a hit-first guy,” Wetherholt said. “I am going to focus on defensive versatility, which is a challenge I am up for. I want to show I am a good defender, too, and that they can have confidence in me in any situation.”

Across both stops in 2025, Wetherholt ranked among qualifying Cardinals minor league leaders in OPS (second), batting average (third), on-base percentage (second), slugging percentage (third), Weighted Run Created Plus (second), hits (125, second), Isolated Power (.203, fourth), extra-base hits (47, second) doubles (28, second), home runs (third), walks (72, first), runs (82, first), stolen bases (T-sixth), RBI (eighth) and walk to strikeout ratio (0.99, third). His .421 on-base percentage ranked fifth among all qualified players across the 30 MLB organizations.

Following the season, Wetherholt racked up multiple honors. He was a Texas League All-Star and the circuit’s Most Valuable Player. He was named to the All-MiLB Prospect First-Team and was chosen as the International League’s MLB Prospect of the Year. Finally, the Cardinals selected him as their organizational Player of the Year.

In Baseball America’s Best Tools selections across the Cardinals system disclosed in the fall, Wetherholt was again recognized three times. His nods as “Best Hitter for Average” and “Best Strike-Zone Discipline” were repeats. He added “Best Defensive Infielder” but appropriately ceded “Best Power Hitter” honors to Rainiel Rodriguez.

According to the major national prospect raters, Wetherholt is a consensus Top 10 prospect in MLB.

2026 outlook

Wetherholt is certain to receive his second consecutive non-roster invitation to St. Louis’ spring camp, but he is coming into year two with a different mindset.

“This spring training is definitely going to be a little bit of a different vibe,” Wetherholt said in the fall. “I’m going to go out there looking to make the team. Last year, I was kind of just there for the experience, but this year, we’ll have the goal of making the team on our plate, and I’m going to work to do so.”

Most expect that Wetherholt’s play in spring training will determine whether he is with St. Louis on Opening Day or returns to Memphis for more seasoning.  Most of the focus will be on his bat, but remember that his professional career total of games played at any defensive position other than shortstop is just 32, or barely a month.

The Cardinals and Wetherholt both have ample motivation in the spring. The rebuilding team could earn an extra 2027 draft pick after the first round if Wetherholt accrues one year of service in 2026 and is named National League Rookie of the Year.

Like everyone else at this point, Cardinals AGM of Player Development and Performance Rob Cerfolio doesn’t know how and where Wetherholt will be used in 2026. The job of his group is to ensure JJ is ready for anything asked of him.

“Everybody sees the stat line with this guy and that in itself is impressive, but for me the part that is more impressive is the one o’clock to six o’clock part of his day and how he wins that part of his day and how that helps set the standard for what we want to see organizationally for all of our players,” Cerfolio said. “Attention to detail, the reps that he takes are intentional and deliberate.

“And he deserves a lot of credit for his growth on defense. (Farm director) Larry Day and (field coordinator) Ryan Barba and the whole crew that was really partnering with him on, ‘What can we do to make you a better shortstop?’ with the some of the technique of the fielding phase and how he throws.

“Also spending time at second and third and the different demands that those positions require. Like we never know what position the major league manager needs to write these guys into for the first time, so from our vantage point, it’s ‘How do we give them versatility and options to get into that lineup card easier?’ And JJ really attacked that and never had any ego on what he can or can’t do. He just was always interested in ‘How do I get better?’ He deserves a lot of credit,” Cerfolio concluded.

Future outlook

Future Value: 60
Role: All-Star
Risk: Moderate

The Cardinals’ second half 2025 shift of Wetherholt’s defensive diversification from second base to third hints to where his initial home with St. Louis may be. But that also depends on the makeup of the roster at the end of March. Per my sources, the Cardinals prefer Brendan Donovan at second base, and even if he is traded, they have multiple options at the keystone better than their other choices on the left side.

Speaking of the left side, a National League scout reminded me that even after Wetherholt settles in at another position, his time at shortstop may not be completely behind him.

“The Cardinals have no shortstop off the bench,” the evaluator said. “(Thomas) Saggese is below average there and they won’t play (Jose) Fermin.”

Obviously, even if the Cardinals embraced the idea of Wetherholt at shortstop, it would only be an occasional event unless Masyn Winn has to sit out for any significant period.

Regarding Wetherholt’s ceiling, he currently stands alone as the only 60 Future Value (All-Star) in the Cardinals system. But I do not yet feel comfortable calling that Low risk of occurring, hence the Moderate assignment, which is identical to the year before. (And I write this before reading Kyle’s history lesson.) But, had I assessed Wetherholt a 55 FV (above average regular/occasional All-Star), I would then call his risk Low.

Either way, before very long in 2026, we should see Wetherholt join St. Louis’ starting lineup and remain there for years to come. He will be added to the 40-man roster the day he is called up.

MLB debut: 2026
Rule 5 eligible: 2027

Our 2026 Top 50 series continues

You’d think our Top 50 countdown would end with no. 1, but we have two new pitchers to include. Blake Aita and Yhoiker Fajardo joined the organization in late December and will be inserted into our already unveiled rankings.

Look for a two-fer Tuesday on January 5 as the pair of pitchers make our 2026 list a Top 52!

To see the entire list of top Cardinals prospects, grading scales and remaining article schedule, click here. This includes the Top 50 countdown and 10 in-depth, follow-up articles breaking down the list.

50 Days, 50 Nights, 50 St. Louis Cardinals Prospects for 2026

Exclusively for members of The Cardinal Nation

TCN 2026 St. Louis Cardinals Prospect #2 – Liam Doyle

Not yet a member?

If you enjoyed this article, please consider joining The Cardinal Nation to receive the most comprehensive coverage of the St. Louis Cardinals from the majors through the entire minor league system, including access to every article in our 2026 Top Cardinals Prospects series.

Brian Walton can be reached via email at brian@thecardinalnation.com. Follow Brian and The Cardinal Nation on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky.

Follow Kyle Reis on X/Twitter.

© 2026 The Cardinal Nation, thecardinalnation.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.