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I like judge but i dont consider him a great hitter. Hes a good hitter, a great homerun hitter and a great player. I dont have to consider him a great hitter. Willie mcgee won a batting title but in the patheon of great hitters, he is not. So a batting by itself is not something to rest your laurels on.
Ill give you his avg has been great. I agree i dont watch many non cardinal games anymore. Most of my views have been of post season, and for the most part hes been just ok.
I saw Aaron Judge play when my son took me to see a Yankees/Cardinals game in August of ’22. He bought two real nice field level box seats situated between HP and 1B on the right side of the IF so I had a pretty good look at Judge every time he stood in the box. My primary memory is that he looked like a full grown man who was situated on the playing field with 9 young children dressed out in Cardinal uniforms…Haha!
JJ Wetherholt is pacing to play 158 games this season. At his current pace he will finish the season:
605 AB
31 HR
82 RBI
17 SB
17 2B
92 BB
.782 OPSWe got a good one. #STLCards pic.twitter.com/05gjN3FKsX
— Cardinals Talk (@theredbird_way) May 20, 2026
In fWAR, Jordan is at 2.1, Wetherholt 2.0, and then there is a drop to the (still good) Herrera and Burly at 1.0. In bWAR, Jordan is 2.9, Wetherholt 2.4, and then the drop to 1.3 for Herrera, Burly, and Winn.
If we’re wondering what the difference is in this team vs last, there’s a good case that Walker and Wetherholt are the main part. I still hope they give Wetherholt some more days off…maybe shoot at 145-150 games instead of 158 as he ramps up from last year’s 109 games, especially as the weather heats up.
I can squint and see Jordan and Wetherholt as the two home-grown stars for the next many years, hopefully with Rodriguez joining them before too long. I’m very curious about the team’s and players’ thoughts on extensions, and I hope this season goes well in part to make St. Louis a more attractive long-term destination.
Wetherholt’s power surprises me. I saw the picture of him next to Griffin and the difference in height is pretty stark.
Good stuff on our 2 rising stars Gags. They are clearly difference makers.
I’m not a fan of extensions in general. I don’t mind buying out arbitration years, but extensions are another ballgame. I have a couple reasons:
1) Extensions typically end with a winner and loser (player or team) and the loser inevitably feels jaded. That feeling erodes trust and has a lot of small implications down the line that typically hurt performance.
2) Players who are extended are potentially discouraged (or at least not encouraged) to try their best with max effort towards improvement. There are lots and lots of examples of this.
I have no issues with signing a new contract within the final year of a previous contract or buying out arbitration years. Those are mutually beneficial to both parties. But I don’t like extensions. It’s like buying insurance for your home. You’re betting it’s going to be damaged for more value than you are paying in and the insurance company is betting it won’t. Either way, someone wins and someone loses and in the end, insurance companies don’t like to lose and many people grow to dislike insurance companies.
In my opinion, let Wetherholt play out his seasons with the Cardinals and then make a decision in his final year to offer a new contract or not. I don’t want to try to win against our own player.
In general I agree with that. I like going year to year because it provides motivation for the player to keep producing. I know that teams like cost certainty but that isn’t much of a benefit if production falls off a cliff.
You also have to really know the player because some will be able to handle their newfound prosperity better than others. Wetherholt strikes me as the type who would stay motivated even after getting the big contract but that is just a hunch.
It has been awhile since the Cardinals extended someone beyond their arb years but there are several candidates on this team to choose from to do that. Hopefully the team will choose wisely.
jnevel and gscottar-
Thanks. I realize I have not thought as carefully about extensions as I should have. I think also of the effect on other players of extending these two. For instance, what does Herrera think if Walker and Wetherholt are extended?
Regardless, the thought of Walker, Wetherholt, and Rodriguez playing together for a long while has a lot of appeal…though I could be jumping the gun on any or all of the three.
Gags, I think all three of the players you mentioned, along with Herrera, Burly, and Winn should be long term Cardinals but there is still plenty of time to make that happen. The Cardinals are in a pretty good spot right now with all of the long term control they possess but without all of the long term payroll obligations.
If we have the money, I’d like that, too! But I expect that the 6 will get too pricey, and my bet is that Walker, Wetherholt, and Rodriquez end up as a players a tier better than Herrera, Burly, and Winn. I look forward to watching! I got involved in the predecessors to this board back in the 90s when I started posting daily minor league performances, as they were not as easily found as now. It was a tough spot for the team, and I was looking forward to the team returning to prominence, with the guys on the farm leading the way. This year reminds me of those days….
Who’s your NL Rookie of the Year?
Nolan McLean:
10 GS, 58 IP, 3.57 ERA/3.22 FIP, 10.7 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 1.3 fWARJJ Wetherholt:
46 G, 239/.362/.420, 9 HR, 125 wRC+, 99th percentile OAA, 2.0 fWARSal Stewart:
50 G, .265/.353/.503, 12 HR, 132 wRC+, 29th percentile OAA, 1.1 fWAR pic.twitter.com/7miTqFaXxs— Baseball Is Dead (@baseballisdead_) May 20, 2026
JJ Wetherholt has 9 home runs and 6 stolen bases. Given that he plays every day and has adjusted quickly to MLB, he has a real shot to go 20-20 as a rookie
This is more rare than it sounds, though it is becoming increasingly more common
All 20-20 rookies ever, per @Stathead 👇 pic.twitter.com/MxN8TBDxAn
— Matt Eddy (@MattEddyBA) May 22, 2026
Unless JJ can raise his BA, then by the end of the season he is going to look a lot like any other .230s hitter. That is just how baseball works.
I want to put this May 23 post by bling in this thread. Looks like he has both ends covered to say he was right later.
Coincidentally, I was recently listening to a conversation on the subject of Wetherholt’s .250ish BABip, which is well below his consistently higher BABiP in the minors, and what that might imply or mean for the future. The debate ended up with it likely that hitters would gravitate toward .300, with bad hitters somewhat lower, which I agree with…
As I just said, “unless he can raise his BA”.
BTW, I am anxious to tell the guy on the next barstool that the conversation is being cited as authority.
The way I see it, you wouldn’t bring it up in a new post if you didn’t think he won’t raise his average. Making a supposed generic comment does not mask your point of view. No matter what this guy does, his glass is more than half empty. Unless his BA improves, nothing else seems to be relevant.
Wetherholt is now up to 9th on the fWAR position player leaderboard. 3rd in OAA and tied for 7th by DRS so his defense grades out as excellent across the board. His offense is at a 120 wRC+ and his base running is 2.1 runs above average which puts him at 16th there as well.
If you prefer traditional stats he is tied for 15th in runs scored.
But what’s his BA? That’s all that matters, right?
JJ Wetherholt is on pace for the best fWAR season by a rookie second baseman in the last 100 years, and he’s doing so by excelling in every phase of the game. The crazy thing is…he has more to tap into at the plate as well.
More @ Cardinals. com:https://t.co/NkYppJ2VyO
— Josh Jacobs (@joshjaco98) June 1, 2026
Nobody cares if you are a great base runner and play gold glove defense and hit for power and get on base at a high clip. Or that you’re doing all that as a rookie with literally 2 months of ML experience. You have to be able to get a hit in 28% of your at bats versus only 25%. Otherwise, you’re just ok. It is known Brian.
It’s a brave new world. Enter it or get left behind in discussion of today’s game. You will miss why guys like Wethetholt are marvelous players. I rank him ahead of Walker in reasons why this team is watchable again. Of course my favorite players batting average is poor right now, so I am biased.
You guys repeatedly misstating my point to make yours is lame. JJ was batting low .230s at the time, and my point was that if he did not raise his BA it would be hard or impossible to maintain a high level offensive production all season. I didn’t say BA was the only important stat or that other offense stats were unimportant, I just said he would need to raise his BA to maintain high level production over the season. I believe that point is solid. He has raised his BA to .250 which will help if he maintains it, and it will help more if he raises it further.
The point that is being missed is that RIGHT NOW, at more than one-third through the season, JJ is one of the best players in the game especially given his age, experience and position. He has been for much of the season, even as some wonder if/when he will fail. In every mini-slump the doubts reoccur like a persistent rash.
The post above shows his current PACE. That pace includes his results, ups and downs, to date and the rest of the way. In other words, he doesn’t have to hit at a higher average to be very, very good. He already is. If he just maintains, it will be a tremendously successful season.
In fact, in the Peete discussion, it was admitted that JJs results should improve as his unusually low BABIP normalizes. In that case, a very good season will only get better.
By the way, there are multiple posters here who cannot seem to get past their BA concern to appreciate how good this rookie is.
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