Springfield Cardinals new skipper Patrick Anderson observed batting practice on Field 6 at the Cardinals’ spring training complex in Jupiter when he noticed something odd. It was time to gather the balls scattered around the outfield – a chore that normally falls to pitchers – but instead Anderson saw JJ Wetherholt, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2024 MLB draft, carrying the bucket.
“I was going to take (the bucket) in, and he was like, ‘No, no, I got it’, Anderson said. “Little things like that – the kid is not above that. No matter where he was at, or the stature he’s created for himself as a high-profile guy. He’s a blue-collar kid; he intrigues me because he’s a listener, he doesn’t go about and talk, and rah-rah and all that type of stuff. But he’s got a great personality – it’s really cool to see how grounded he is.”
Wetherholt cranked an opposite field 3-run homer against the Astros on Feb. 23 and Anderson said JJ “turned some heads” at big league camp. A glum Cardinals Nation took notice too, and the progress of St. Louis’ first Top 10 overall pick since J.D. Drew will garner plenty of attention. But none of that was on Wetherholt’s mind as he took a scenic path to the birthplace of Route 66.
“Listening to music, making phone calls, hoping the truck was going to do well, and it did. I stopped in Atlanta, so I was hoping my truck didn’t get broken into because it was packed to the brim, which didn’t happen so that was good,” Wetherholt said after driving from Florida to Springfield, where he will start his first full professional season in Double-A on Friday night.
“(The drive) was honestly pretty peaceful, I enjoyed it,” he said.
Call it the quiet before the storm.
JJ Wetherholt drove from Jupiter, Florida to Springfield ahead of Friday nights opener and the small town kid passed through a few places that looked like home.
More from JJ and 2025 @Sgf_Cardinals to come @ScoopsNetwork #STLCards pic.twitter.com/ohHBtqtp6B
— Andy Carroll (@carroll_sgf) March 31, 2025
Undrafted out of Mars High School near Pittsburgh, Wetherholt thundered into the national spotlight when he led the NCAA with a .449 batting average, 1.304 OPS, 16 home runs and 36 stolen bases as a sophomore at West Virgina in 2022. JJ is ranked No. 22 by MLB.com on the Top 100 prospects list and the scouting report raves that he possesses “some of the best bat-to-ball skills in his Draft class” – skills Wetherholt says he developed the old-fashioned way.
“I really didn’t do a lot of specialized training – not that my dad didn’t know about it, but to be honest, he didn’t know about it. He’d take a bucket of balls, we’d go the cage, he’d throw it and wherever he threw it I had to hit it back that way. My focus with him was always middle of the field,” he said.
Wetherholt family lore says a young JJ swung righthanded before switching to the left side to imitate his older brother.
“(My dad) swears by it, I think my brother agrees with it too – if they say it, I go with it. That’s the legend, I picked up a bat and swung righty, saw my brother and ‘oh, I want to hit like him’. And it’s actually funny because I’ve done metrics – bat speed and stuff like that – I can swing the bat faster righthanded, so it’s almost like my body is primed to move this way, but we built it up lefthanded too.”
In high school Wetherholt played for Andy Bednar – the father of MLB players David and Will Bednar – then accepted an offer to stay close to home at West Virginia. He had 20 multi-hit games and was named Honorable Mention All-Big 12 in 2021 as a freshman, when he played with Cardinals’ outfielder Victor Scott II, then a junior for the Mountaineers.
“It’s pretty known in the org, like Vic is just the definition of a workaholic, like a grinder. I saw it firsthand, something I really admire about the dude – he was the fastest on the team, the strongest on the team, all this stuff. And he just wanted more. I mean, it lit a fire in me when I was young, like okay this is what its going to take,” Wetherholt said.
Wetherholt started the next season on a 13-game hitting streak and never cooled off. He was a Unanimous First-Team All-American, and he accumulated enough hardware to pack a U-Haul to the brim. But on the eve of his Double-A debut, Wetherholt is aiming for collective success.
“Winning is kind of in my blood – I love to win, obviously as most players do, but getting into a team that means business and is going to take things seriously…is huge. It makes you feel good as a player just knowing that the team, the staff, the org, are going to do everything they can to win games – and it takes pressure of yourself.”
As JJ meandered from the Atlantic coast to the Ozarks, he passed through several small towns reminiscent of his home in Mars, Pennsylvania, which didn’t even have a 24-hour convenience store when his family moved there from Baltimore. A reporter asked Wetherholt if he knew that St. Louis Cardinals’ legend Stan Musial was also a lefthanded hitter raised on the outskirts of Pittsburgh.
JJ smiled.
“No pressure, by the way” the reporter replied.
