What a happy and exciting Friday this turned out to be. I may actually rise up out of this desk and dance. That’s the fan in me talking. The baseball analyst in me … well, that serious guy wants to dance, too.
As you’ve almost certainly heard by now, the Cardinals and their fantastic rookie second baseman JJ Wetherholt, a generational talent, have agreed to form a long-term partnership in baseball.
Wetherholt is now a building block in Chaim Bloom’s critically important project to restore the Cardinals to greatness. The first crucial, long-term foundational piece is in place, and I have to think the Cardinals will try to do the same with right fielder Jordan Walker.
Jeff Passan (ESPN), Jon Heyman (New York Post) and Katie Woo (The Athletic) were among the first to report the details of the eight-year, $112.5 million contract agreement between Wetherholt and the Cardinals.
According to Heyman, Wetherholt’s deal can max out at $132 million, indicating there’s potential for an additional $19.5 million available in performance bonuses. There are no team option years included. Even if Wetherholt reaches the incentives to kick in the full $132 million, we’re talking about an annual average value of $16.5 million.
Assuming the new contract activates prior to the 2027 season – and knowing Wetherholt will be credited with one full season of MLB service time for 2026 – this deal will cover three free agent years.
That will make JJ Wetherholt a Cardinal through 2034 – and it’s impossible to downplay the significance of this. This isn’t just a great deal; this is a big deal in the magnitude of what it means for Cardinals baseball. It is a deal that will have substantial impact in shaping the Cardinals’ long-range future. He is, as the expression goes, a franchise player.
On his end, Wetherholt can enter the free-agent market at age 32, and he’ll have plenty of time for abundant earning power.
I’m hesitant to use the phrase “a bargain for the Cardinals” in characterizing this contract. Why? Because that implies the Cardinals “won” or somehow got the best of this extension by coaxing JJ to settle for less.
I don’t see it that way at all. If we’ve learned anything after observing the 23-year old Wetherholt, we know that he’s a young man of advanced intelligence and maturity. He has the maximum seriousness about playing and competing in the game. He has a longing to attain greatness. He has set the highest possible standards for himself.
The Cardinals can thank the baseball gods for their remarkably good fortune in landing the 7th overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. We didn’t know it then, but that was the first step on the Cardinals’ long path back to finding their lost greatness and prestige as a baseball franchise.
And while we’re at it: a sincere thank you to John Mozeliak and Randy Flores. Thanks for drafting JJ Wetherholt, a gift to the institution that is Cardinals baseball.
This isn’t a “winners” or “losers” exercise in idiocy. There is no need to make that choice, as if we’re cheapjack game-show contestants.
There are only winners in this baseball partnership.
Wetherholt wins. The West Virginia university baseball team probably wins. JJ’s church wins. The Wetherholt family wins. The DeWitt family wins. Chaim Bloom wins. The fans win. The manager wins, the coaches win, the other Cardinal players win.
(And an old sportswriter/podcaster wins, because stars make the sportsworld go ‘round, and I got into this business to write about greatness.)
To me, Wetherholt symbolizes – clearly represents – the beginning of a new era of Cardinals baseball. This team must always honor the glorious past without becoming prisoners to history.
The Redbirds can’t go on the way they’ve been, feeling pressure to live up to what Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Chris Carpenter, Matt Holliday, Matt Carpenter, Scott Rolen, Ray Lankford, David Freese, Edgar Renteria, Jason Isringhausen, Matt Morris, Mark McGwire, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Lance Lynn, Trevor Rosenthal, Jeff Suppan, Mike Matheny, the great Tony La Russa, and so many others responsible for creating a special time and place over the last 30+ years of Cardinals baseball.
We can’t use AI to replicate the past. There are only so many bobblehead nights that can be staged. So many days and nights where the experience becomes a rendition of Springsteen’s “Glory Days” song.
The Cardinals must produce new stars, real stars, men who can honor the grandeur, the historical impact, of the timeless and beautiful Birds on the Bat by becoming leaders of the next generation – to carry the tradition forward in a way that will make the Cardinals and their fans – then and now – proud of what this franchise is and can be again.
I hope the commitment to Wetherholt will fire up the customers and begin the process of earning back the trust of a skeptical – and somewhat alienated – fan base. This is a meaningful, good-faith signing.
Busch Stadium must come alive again, or the reputation of St. Louis as America’s best baseball town will gradually fade out. That decline has already started – and it must be halted, handled with care, and revived.
It’s easy to understand why the Cardinals would be in such a hurry to commit as much as $132 million to a first-year MLB talent who comes into the weekend with 87 career regular-season games and just 395 plate appearances.
Just a reminder:
— With 3.6 WAR through 87 games, (the FanGraphs version), Wetherholt is on pace for 6.3 fWAR. That would make him the second-most valuable Cardinals rookie in franchise history, topped only by Albert Pujols’ 7.2 fWAR in 2001.
— Just to reaffirm: if Wetherholt concludes the 2026 campaign with 6.3 fWAR, he will have had a better all-around rookie season than Stan Musial (1942), Rogers Hornsby (1916), Johnny Mize (1936) and Joe Medwick (1933.)
— If Wetherholt hits the 3.6 fWAR mark, it will be the highest figure by a rookie second baseman in MLB history.
— I would say that fWAR isn’t for everyone, but I respect it because Wins Above Replacement is based on all-purpose value: offense, defense, baserunning.
— Entering the weekend, not only did Wetherholt’s 3.6 fWAR lead all NL rookies (and by a wide margin) his WAR was No. 4 overall in the National League and 8th highest in the majors. So his value is exceeding that of many established MLB veterans and stars.
— Less than 100 games into his big-league career, Wetherholt has emerged as the best fielding second baseman in the majors in defensive runs saved, outs above average and Fielding Run Value. Among MLB players at all positions, JJ ranks tied for second in outs above average, second in Fielding Run Value and sixth in defensive runs saved.
— Based on wRC+, Wetherholt is the second-best NL rookie in offense at 18 percent above league average. And the one rookie ahead of him, the Rockies’ T.J. Rumfield has the benefit of playing home games at hitter-happy Coors Field. If JJ wins the NL Rookie of the Year award, the Cardinals will receive a sweet draft pick in the 2027 MLB Draft. As for all-around value, no rookie in the NL is even remotely close to nearing Wetherholt’s impact.
This contract extension is the grand opening of the Cardinals’ new era. And hopefully this is just the start. If Jordan Walker is interested, the next move is to come up with a contract extension that will make J-Walk and JJ teammates for a glorious new chapter in St. Louis baseball history.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Keith Tkachuk, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.