The Springfield Cardinals’ memorable 2025 season added another chapter on Nov. 19 with two of the team’s prominent players named as the St. Louis Cardinals’ top minor-leaguers.
Infielder JJ Wetherholt, who spent the first half of the season with the Double-A Texas League champion, is the organization’s Minor League Player of the Year, while starting pitching mainstay Brycen Mautz is St. Louis’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year.
It marks the fourth consecutive season in which one or both awards have gone to players who were with Springfield. Wetherholt follows Jimmy Crooks (2024), Thomas Saggese (2023) and Moises Gomez (2022) as Springfield Cardinals to earn the Player of the Year Award.
Wetherholt played the first 62 games of last season with Springfield, helping the Cardinals win the first-half Texas League North Division title. He hit .300 with seven home runs, 34 RBIs and had 14 stolen bases. In his final Double-A appearance on July 6, Wetherholt tallied his first multi-home run game as a pro, against Northwest Arkansas.
The 2024 first-round draft choice went on to play in the MLB Futures Game and starred for Triple-A Memphis in the second half of the season, hitting .314 with 10 home runs and 25 RBIs in 47 games. He’s projected to compete for a starting position with St. Louis during spring training.
Brycen Mautz was named the St. Louis Cardinals’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year after going 8-3 with a 2.98 ERA with Springfield in 2025. (Photo by PJ Maigi)
Mautz spent all season with Springfield and wound up pitching in the Texas League playoff-clinching series against Tulsa and Midland as the Cardinals won their second league title. The lefty joins Quinn Mathews (2024), Max Rajcic (2023) and Gordon Graceffo (2022) as recent Springfield starters to earn the organization’s top minor-league pitching award.
Mautz had an 8-3 record and 2.98 earned run average, while limiting opponents to a .219 average. Minor League Baseball named Mautz the Texas League’s July Pitcher of the Month, and he followed up that award with a 10-strikeout performance on Aug. 8 against the San Antonio Missions, allowing just one hit in six shutout innings.
Of his 25 regular-season starts in 2025, Mautz surrendered one or zero runs 16 times. He finished the year as the No. 21-ranked prospect in the system, according to MLB Pipeline. He was added to the St. Louis 40-man roster for the first time on Nov. 18.
Lyndal Scranton is a Springfield native who has covered sports in the Ozarks for more than 35 years, witnessing nearly every big sports moment in the region during the last 50 years. The Missouri Sports Hall of Famer, Springfield Area Sports Hall of Famer and live-fire cooking enthusiast also serves as PR Director for Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri and is co-host of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast. Contact him at Lscranton755@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @LyndalScranton. More by Lyndal Scranton