{"id":3283,"date":"2026-05-31T16:06:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=3283"},"modified":"2026-05-31T16:06:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:06:26","slug":"cardinals-hidden-prospect-secret-just-leaked-jj-wetherholt-quietly-destroying-baseballs-1-prospect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=3283","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals&#8217; Hidden Prospect Secret Just Leaked: JJ Wetherholt Quietly Destroying Baseball&#8217;s #1 Prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2272105183.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2272105183.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2272105183.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2272105183.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Cardinals' JJ Wetherholt is Outperforming Top Prospect In Baseball\" width=\"780\" height=\"520\" \/><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p>HOUSTON, TEXAS &#8211; APRIL 19: Masyn Winn #0 and JJ Wetherholt #26 of the St. Louis Cardinals celebrate after defeating the Houston Astros in the game at Daikin Park on April 19, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Kenneth Richmond\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>St. Louis Cardinals\u2019 star rookie, JJ Wetherholt, has been on fire in 2026. The left-handed-hitting leadoff specialist has already posted 2.5 Baseball Reference WAR and an OPS+ of 115.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s playing so well that people are starting to compare him to a division rival\u2019s top prospect.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Wetherholt is Outperforming Pirates\u2019 Konnor Griffin<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Although Griffin was called up later and therefore has a smaller sample size , Wetherholt has played significantly better.<\/p>\n<p>Griffin has a lower WAR, batting average, on-base percentage, fielding metrics, and WRC+. By just about any measurement, it\u2019s Wetherholt\u2019s world.<\/p>\n<p>Peter Appel, a co-founder of Just Baseball Media, spoke on how Wetherholt has clearly had the better start to his career .<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGriffin has the most upside, but Wetherholt right now, as we stand here today, is a better baseball player,\u201d said Appel. \u201cHe\u2019s putting up consistently better ABs, phenomenal defender, he\u2019s a good base runner as well. I know Griffin has all of these tools, and he flashes better tools than Wetherholt. I think, at their current form, JJ Wetherholt is simply a better baseball player. Now he\u2019s only hitting .234, and you\u2019re like, \u2018ehhhhh,\u2019 but he\u2019s gotten a little bit unlucky based on his quality of contact. And again, he\u2019s kind of a copy and paste of [Kevin] McGonigle. Putting up excellent Abs day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He continued, \u201cBut as a rookie, you\u2019re gonna go through some highs and lows. Currently, JJ Wetherholt is in a relative low. But here\u2019s what a relative low looks like over an entire season. Wetherholt has played 53 games; he\u2019s got nine homers, six steals, and he\u2019s struck out less than 20% of the time with an 11% walk rate, with a 117 WRC+, and his xwOBA is about .20 points higher than his wOBA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the Pirates signing Wetherholt to a long-term deal before he even broke camp, it raises the question: where are the Cardinals at in retaining Wetherholt?<\/p>\n<h2><b>The Cardinals Need to Extend Their Leadoff Man<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>The Cardinals have reportedly not made any significant progress in extending their star-studded youth.<\/p>\n<p>In an article for MLB.com , Will Leitch wrote : But an extension is nevertheless not so simple. The main issue with Wetherholt is that he\u2019ll turn 24 in September, which, obviously, is not old, but for a rookie, it kind of is. The Cardinals have Wetherholt under team control through the 2031 season, when he will turn 29 right before the postseason on Sept. 10, which means if they extended him, they\u2019d be buying the first few years of his 30s \u2014 always a risk for a middle infielder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Outside of the obvious risk of signing a middle infielder long-term, other factors could be giving the team pause.<\/p>\n<p>Shortstop Masyn Winn\u2019s rapid decline offensively has no doubt made St. Louis nervous about his future. Initially, he looked like a sure building block. Although he still plays a Gold Glove shortstop, his lackluster performance with the stick makes it hard to justify an extension.<\/p>\n<p>The Cardinals may stay away from a Wetherholt extension for now, though he\u2019s surely earned the right for it to become a conversation .<\/p>\n<p>The last time the Cardinals had a prospect this hyped up was Jordan Walker. The last time they had an impact right away? Albert Pujols. St. Louis baseball is in a great spot while Wetherholt commands the reins to the lineup.<\/p>\n<p>AJ Stone AJ Stone is a baseball writer for Heavy, covering MLB news and various trends. His work has also appeared on Redbird Rants, Inside Halos, District on Deck, and other digital outlets. With a focus on analytics, he aims to blend data with storytelling for an engaging experience for his readers. More about AJ Stone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>St. Louis Cardinals&#8217; rookie JJ Wetherholt is setting new trends in The Lou. In tandem, he&#8217;s outplaying the supposed best rookie in the class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cardinals&#039; Hidden Prospect Secret Just Leaked: JJ Wetherholt Quietly Destroying Baseball&#039;s #1 Prospect - Sports USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=3283\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardinals&#039; Hidden Prospect Secret Just Leaked: JJ Wetherholt Quietly Destroying Baseball&#039;s #1 Prospect - Sports USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"St. Louis Cardinals&#039; rookie JJ Wetherholt is setting new trends in The Lou. 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