While WVU baseball has recently wrapped up a historic season on the diamond and is working toward building an elite transfer portal class, a former Mountaineer standout is turning heads in the minor leagues.
JJ Wetherholt, who spent three seasons with WVU from 2022-2024, has spent the 2025 season with the Springfield Cardinals at the Double-A level of minor league baseball. The former Mountaineer standout, who was selected by St. Louis with the seventh-overall pick of the 2024 MLB Draft, has been quickly proving his worth to the Cardinals' organization this season with his impressive performance.
As of Springfield's 52nd game of the season, Wetherholt has posted a .321 batting average with an OPS of .910 while leading his team with 13 doubles and four home runs. He was also recently named to the MLB Pipeline's Prospect Team of the Week, and is now the focus of chatter regarding just how soon he'll find himself called up to the major leagues.
"Last year's seventh overall pick entered pro ball with tons of hype around his hit tool, and he's backing that up lately with a .475/.588/.700 line over his last 11 games for Double-A Springfield," according to MLB.com.
"That pushes his season average up to .322, fourth-best in all of Double-A, and his OBP to .443, tops among qualifiers at the level. We've seen other 2024 first-rounders already reach the Majors, and with the way Wetherholt is handling Texas League arms, he's worth moving to Triple-A Memphis at least soon."
When Wetherholt does get his opportunity on the main roster with St. Louis, he will join a fellow WVU baseball alum and former teammate in Victor Scott II, who has been having an impressive season of his own at the major league level with the Cardinals. Mountaineers' fans will eagerly await Wetherholt's call up to have the opportunity to watch multiple former WVU stars help lead an MLB program to success.