make an impact on the big-league club<\/a> this season.<\/p>\nJJ Wetherholt looks like the next Cardinals star![\"St.](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/01kgb13hgaxycjg0vawa.jpg\" "\\"St.")
<\/p>\n
Mar 5, 2025; West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; St. Louis Cardinals left feilder JJ Wetherholt (87) celebrates after scoring against the Houston Astros during the second inning at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. Mandatory Credit: Rich Storry-Imagn Images | Rich Storry-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
“The crown jewel of the Cardinals\u2019 farm system and a former Dick Howser Award finalist, Wetherholt was a true 1:1 contender before the 2024 collegiate season,” Akbani wrote. “A hamstring injury and a dip in production led to him falling into St. Louis\u2019s lap at No. 7 in the 2024 draft.<\/p>\n
“Since his professional debut, he\u2019s done nothing but rake, posting a 140 wRC+ in the Fall after the draft and a 154 wRC+ between Double-A and Triple-A in 2025. There were rumblings about him being a September callup, but given the Cardinals\u2019 organizational strategy, their front office opted to keep him at Triple-A throughout the season.”<\/p>\n
If the Cardinals hold onto Donovan, Wetherholt might be blocked for the time being. This would likely leave him in the minor leagues until he gets hot this season.<\/p>\n
But if Wetherholt can pick up this season where he left off last year, it won’t take long until he’s in the big leagues. Wetherholt could push Donovan onto the trade block if he begins the year hot. He could also push Donovan to a different position.<\/p>\n
Either way, the young prospect is seemingly the Cardinals’ second baseman of the future. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him in the big leagues early on this season.<\/p>\n
More MLB: Cardinals Predicted to Trade Brendan Donovan to NL Contender<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St. Louis Cardinals are in the middle of a massive rebuild right now. They’ve made a handful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,4,673,67,4311,4310],"class_list":{"0":"post-548315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cardinals","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-st-louis","12":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","13":"tag-stlouis","14":"tag-stlouiscardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115992358889235560","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}