J.J. Wetherholt Wins Player of the Week, Blasts Playoff Homer on 22nd Birthday

J.J. Wetherholt, the former West Virginia baseball star and seventh overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, has been tearing the cover off of the baseball ever since going pro. The regular season in Single-A came to an end on September 9th, and Wetherholt ended his season with winning Florida State League Player of the Week honors after going 14-28 at the plate with four extra base hits and driving in nine runs batted in. His hot bat led the Palm Beach Cardinals to a five-game winning streak to cap off the season and head into the playoffs on a high note.

The former WVU standout shortstop finished the regular season in Single-A playing in 29 games with a .295 batting average, .405 on-base percentage, and a .805 on-base plus slugging. He also finished the year with five doubles, two homers, two stolen bases, 20 runs batted in, 18 runs scored, and more walks (16) than strikeouts (15). The numbers that he put up in his first round of professional baseball has put him on top of the St. Louis Cardinals Prospect Rankings, coming in as the Cardinals #1 prospect. The shortstop is also ranked #16 in the whole MLB Top 100 Prospect list.

For Wetherholt and the Palm Beach Cardinals, however, the season in not yet finished. Palm Beach swept the Daytona Tortugas (Cincinnati Reds Affiliate) in a best-of-three series in the first round of the playoffs, where in the series Wetherholt went 4-8 with two walks, three runs batted in, and mashed a big home run in game one on his 22nd birthday. The video of the homer can be seen below.

Currently, Wetherholt's Palm Beach squad is down 0-1 to the Lakeland Flying Tigers (Detroit Tigers Affiliate) in a best-of-three series for the Florida State League championship. The shortstop went 3-5 with an RBI and a run scored in the series opening loss. Win or lose, Wetherholt is wrapping up a stellar first season in pro ball and is looking forward to see what is in store for himself. "I'm looking forward to just climbing through the system," said Wetherholt, "I know High-A is in Peoria and then Double-A is in Springfield, so I'm just excited to keep going and keep moving up."