The Cardinals have reached agreement with shortstop JJ Wetherholt to a $6.9MM bonus, according to Baseball America’s Carlos Collazo (X link). Wetherholt’s first pro deal is slightly above the $6,823,700 slot value assigned to the seventh overall pick.
Based on pre-draft rankings, St. Louis might’ve gotten a bit of a steal in nabbing Wetherholt with the seventh pick, as the West Virginia shortstop was a consensus top-four selection. Fangraphs had Wetherholt as the top prospect in the entire draft class, while Baseball America, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and The Athletic’s Keith Law had him third in their rankings, and MLB Pipeline put Wetherholt fourth. There was some speculation prior to draft night that the Guardians could take Wetherholt with the first overall pick, but when Cleveland opted for Travis Bazzana, Wetherholt then slid all the way to the Cardinals at seventh overall.
It seems possible that teams might’ve been wary of Wetherholt’s recent injury history, namely a lingering hamstring problem that has cropped up in each of the last two years. He is also listed at 5’10” and 190 pounds, and thus “doesn’t have the prototypical physical tools and frame of a top pick,” as McDaniel writes. Drafted as a shortstop, he might end up at second base or third base, with the latter position maybe a question mark depending on his arm strength.
Despite these potential red flags, the Cardinals focused on the big pluses of Wetherholt’s all-around hitting skill, as evaluators praised his batting eye, contact ability, raw power, and ability to hit to all fields. Seen as perhaps the top available hitter in the draft class, this was enough for Fangraphs to put Wetherholt atop their rankings, and their scouting report also feels “he should be a fine second base defender at peak.”
Wetherholt carries even more import within the Cardinals’ draft class since the team forfeited its second-round pick as a condition of the Sonny Gray signing. Because Gray rejected the Twins’ qualifying offer last autumn and hit the open market, St. Louis had to give up its second-highest pick in the 2024 draft as well as $500K in international pool money as penalty for inking Gray to a three-year, $75MM contract. Wetherholt’s bonus will cover the majority of the Cardinals’ overall draft bonus pool of $10,213,000.