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BA update…
JJ Wetherholt in June for @cardinals:
.289/.347/.400
1 2B
3 HR
9 RBIHe's hitting .320 to begin July đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/C5lrzxS4cI
— Milb Central (@milb_central) July 7, 2026
Appears to be 8 years 112 million with some extra for hitting incentives. Disapointed in jj. I believed he might decline and bet on himself. I figured he might be a little smarter and learn from the pujols deal not to give the greedy cardinal owners a deal. Of course he could get worse and maybe it all evens out.
Here is how JJ Wetherholt 8yr $112.5m deal with #STLCardinals looks next to the most recent similar deals…seems like fair market contract for both sides:
Kevin McGonigle 8yrs, $150m
Konnor Griffin 8yrs, $140m
Jackson Merrilll 9yrs, $135m
Roman Anthony 8yrs, $130m
Pete…— Jim Bowden⚾️ (@JimBowdenGM) July 10, 2026
It’s clear that it both preps the Cards for a potential salary floor by adding some AAV to the pot as well as providing JJ with some certainty for his financial future. I’m fine with it, and hope that JJ manages his money well to set himself up well for a bright future.
I disagree with that totally. Now i enlisted the help of google but assuming he keeps up the same pace the rest of the year, his worth would be around 50 to 70 million a year for an elite second baseman. Of course he wouldnt get that but as a free agent he could def garner 25 to 30 million a season. So while it may seem fair, 112 million seems great to most, its def far more fair to the team but jj signed it after like i said having seen how the pujols deal panned out, so he gets what he gets.
I don’t get the Albert Pujols comp at all.
Market value per Google has no relevance to the pre-arbitration and arbitration value of a player.
Market value would apply when Wetherholt would be eligible for a free agent contract, which wouldn’t be for six more years. Until then, he is under team control with his salary guided by the pre-arb and arb rules in place.
So, in this deal, he gives up three (corrected) free agent years later in return for a lot of money up front. Good news for all parties.
So I guess the team is buying 2 pre-arb years, 3 arb years and 3 extra years. That is based on how things are now prior to the new CBA. They also assume injury risk and productivity downturn risk. In exchange they get a good deal on AAV based on free market value assuming production and health holds up. There is also certainty about cost and control which would otherwise be uncertain with the new CBA coming. I don’t know what happens if they don’t play next season in whole or in part.
I am not sure I understand willie’s comment. JJ is basically selling 8 years worth of health and performance risk to the team in exchange for whatever potential extra pay he is foregoing. His level of risk aversion is his business, and he is entitled to act accordingly.
Oh brian your point mystifies me as well. There is still a market value for statistics regardless of whether the player is under team control or not. I never said he would get that in arbitration when that came available though one could easily see him getting far north of that 14 million if he was performing the same or better at that time. My knowledge of the first deal with pujols is not the best but i know he took a deal that largely favored the team, sure he got paid well but not based on what he did during or even before that contract. Now i dont know jjs reasoning, could be security of the moment, could be he doesnt care about wealth, a little bit of both. Could be hes thinking about being a cardinal for life and if that, the pujols thing is a cautionary tale. In pujols case there wasnt someone who had came through like him in st louis under that ownership so he was in new territory. Jj cant say that, the history is there. Thats the comparison im talking about.
Oh bling i agree with you. He is entitled to act in his best interest. I have no problem with that. Hes making good money but just not near equal to his potential down the road. Sure if he craps out after a couple years, hes done quite well for himself. But as a player of that calibre, if it was me, i would bet on myself cause ive already seen evidence that the team isnt about tradition as much as it likes to say it is in my view. I would be thinking closer to 20 million a year cause i figure im going to do better next year and prob the year after that. I think if hes as good as numbers say he is getting around what the guy whose with detroit i believe, cant remember his name for anything, is what he should have got. Though i believe he should have gotten more.
Kevin McGonigle is the Detroit player.
McGonigle is two years younger than Wetherholt. He is also performing at a higher level right now. The two players aren’t comparable.
There are many things that go into a decision like this. For some players, money is not the only consideration.
Wooo just seeing the news and this is a FANTASTIC deal. He will provide much much more value than that. This year $29.2 million of value this year.
Willie I doubt JJ is upset at instantly having a net worth of over $100 million. He will be able to sign another deal as well before his career is over and if he can easily make a great amount on interest
Just maybe JJ thinks being the face of this franchise adds to the value of this deal. Maybe he wants to be here to help make the Cardinals great again. It’s a really good look him not trying to scrape the last dollar out of a contract that already provides him more money than most of us dream of. Whatever amount more anyone thinks he could have gotten, multiply by 10 in endorsements and appearance fees. Just maybe there’s a big picture he sees that others don’t.
Love stlcard’ mention of a salary floor. Add a salary ceiling. A deal like this will make it easier to stay under a salary ceiling going forward. And then there’s another part of the Owners’ proposal that takes a designated part of the revenue from all 30 teams, adds it together, then divide it by 30, and distribute an equal share to each team. Make that happen, too.
I disagree with 1982 Willie in that escalating salaries won’t, and in my view, can’t go on forever. Just because it’s been going on for a long time doesn’t mean the future can’t be different. Some semblance of fiscal sanity has to be found.
You would think that a similar deal is in the works for Walker and Winn.
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