As most of you know, I was lucky enough to be invited to attend Winter Warmup as a reporter. Last year, I used that experience to write several season previews. Due to the late start of the top 20 prospect series (caused by waiting for Brendan Donovan to be traded), my Winter Warmup stories have been pushed to now instead of at the beginning of spring training. Thus technically, these could also be called season previews, but there’s a good chance I write a couple of these after the season has already started. I’ll try to pick stories that are not outdated for the ones during the season.
There has been a lot of discussion over how good the Cardinals will be this upcoming season. On the side of ‘better than you’d think’ the primary argument is that, despite trading three of the better players on the team, there is some reason to believe it won’t be a huge drop-off. That argument works for two of the three players.
In the case of Sonny Gray, it’s mainly because the on-field results were not actually that good. He had a 4.28 ERA. I don’t think that’s an unreasonably high bar. For Brendan Donovan however, the reason is because there is a not all that unrealistic chance that his replacement is just as good on day one.
Obviously, he won’t replace the versatility of Donovan and Donovan’s absence will be felt by whoever will take take the innings he would have surely played in LF. But as far as effect on winning games, duplicating Donovan’s production is certainly on the table.
Growing up, Wetherholt was around MLB players. Living where he lived, he would see players like Neil Walker and would grow up playing with Adam Laroche’s son and Jack Wilson’s son, otherwise known as Jacob Wilson of the Athletics. Because of this, the MLB dream seemed a little more real to him than to most people.
He looked up to players like Dustin Pedroia and Jose Altuve, being a bit undersized himself. Probably also a bit of their hustling and grind it out nature. He admired Robinson Cano’s swing. He attended West Virginia, where he pretty much immediately displayed his hitting prowess.
“He has that tool that’s not necessarily hard to come by, but it’s a very, very, very good tool,” said Victor Scott, who played with him at West Virginia for one year, when Scott was a junior and Wetherholt a freshman. “He has that hit tool. And he even had that as a kid in West Virginia.”
Luckily, he had a hamstring issue that caused him to fall in the MLB draft, or the Cardinals probably never get him. And almost two years later, he’s already set to make his MLB debut later today. Coming to spring training less than a year after getting drafted, manager Oliver Marmol was already impressed by him.
“The way he carried himself in that spring, your first year to be around big league guys and big league staff showed a lot about what he’s all about and I’m looking forward to that,” Marmol said.
Marmol calls what Wetherholt has “a quiet confidence” that is rare in young players. Jordan Walker was asked if he would give any advice, being himself once a highly touted player with high expectations on Opening Day.
“I don’t think he needs advice from me,” Walker said. “He’s just so about what he does. He looks like someone who’s not really fazed by anything. He’s just about his work and he gets to work. Anything else, he’s like ‘it’s going to come’. I think he’s one of the most level-headed people I’ve ever met, so I don’t think anything will faze him.”
Wetherholt seems to have that necessary single-mindedness to succeed where he knows what he has to do and knows he can do it. He won’t let distractions get in the way. He won’t be flashy. When opposing fans sometimes stereotype Cardinals fan for only wanting the maybe boring, hard-working guy, they are probably thinking we will only like players if they’re like JJ Wetherholt. He’s that kind of guy. He will not do us any favors in arguing against that when he inevitably becomes a fan favorite. Because Cardinals do like that guy. They don’t only like that kind of player, but they in fact like type of player.
“One of the things I guess people maybe don’t know about him is how humble he is,” Scott said. “He doesn’t like to boast about himself, he’s very down to earth. That kid is definitely screwed on straight.”
See? It sounds like Scott was asked something they don’t know about Wetherholt with the way that was phrased, but he wasn’t led to that response. He was asked a more general question about being teammates with Wetherholt, and it followed the praise of his hit tool in answering the question.
Wetherholt himself has been praised for his nearly impeccable ability to swing at good pitches to hit and to not swing at bad pitches to hit. He is well aware of what type of hitter he is.
“I’m a swing decision guy,” Wetherholt said. “I make good swing decisions, control the zone, drive the ball to all fields and that’s always gonna be my game.”
One would think one wouldn’t be disappointed if someone had a season like Wetherholt had last year. But for at least one part of his game, he was kind of disappointed he strayed from being an all-fields hitter.
“If I get an outside fastball, I cannot miss that pitch,” Wetherholt said. “I need to hit that as double in the left center gap, that’s something I didn’t do as well as I would like to last year, so that’s something I would like to get back to.”
And when asked about his surge in power, he doesn’t think he was doing anything differently. It thinks it was because the AAA ball was different and flew more. The AAA is in theory the MLB ball, but also he thinks the MLB ball might even be different a little. Either way, he’s not really worried about power.
“Power’s usually the tool that comes later,” Wetherholt. “I’m comfortable with the power that I have but of course you’re always trying to add that.”
Try to become more of a power hitter, he’d likely stray from what he considers his game. If power happens because of his game, great, but don’t try to be that guy. At least maybe I’m thinking that way because it reminds me of when Albert Pujols used to say he was a line drive hitter who happened to hit homers. It’s a similar philosophy. Try to hit line drives and sometimes those become homers. Probably to a significantly lesser extent than Pujols of course.
There may be a temptation to hold back on believing in Wetherholt because of past experiences. But oddly, Jordan Walker seemed to perfectly describe the essential difference between himself and Wetherholt when he was asked what he can learn from Wetherholt.
“Relax a little bit,” Walker said. “When we’re hitting in the cage, he’s one of the most relaxed hitters I’ve ever seen. His mechanics are just so clean, relaxed, fluid. It looks so easy when he does it. When I go in the cage and I try to be relaxed, I have some of my best rounds.”
You’re never going to believe this, but somehow there is also a JJ Wetherholt quote that literally makes me think of Jordan Walker related to this same concept. He was not talking about Walker to be very clear. But he very well could have been.
“If you’re twitchy or you’re tense, you start to chase or you get frozen on fastballs down the middle,” Wetherholt said. “I’m definitely trying to be relaxed and I’m just trying to get to use my barrel.”
I was listening to the interview before writing this and I felt my body jump a little. I sympathize with Walker though. I know who I am. I would be twitchy and tense for sure. I didn’t play baseball very far in life and it was unfortunately for talent-related reasons, but I don’t think I could advance because of the mental aspect of the game even if I was talented. I totally get in my own head about significantly less stressful things. But I do think that’s the number one issue with Walker, he’s not relaxed in the batter’s box.
Masyn Winn, who noted that he at least got a month in 2023 to prepare for a full season at the big leagues unlike JJ, is just hoping to make the transition as easy possible.
“I’m really looking forward to playing with JJ,” Winn said. “I want him to come in comfortable and be himself. I don’t want him to be walking on eggshells. I want him to go out there and have a lot of fun. I want to be there for JJ and let him be great.”
I think we’re good guys. I don’t think JJ Wetherholt will be a repeat of past experiences. He has the kind of hit tool and approach that typically translates, and it seems like nothing will faze him. I don’t know if he will bat leadoff later today, but I think he can handle it. One thing is for sure: JJ Wetherholt is ready for the big leagues.
“It’s always a good sight to see (Busch Stadium),” Wetherholt said. “This place is beautiful. It definitely gives you that feeling of ‘I don’t want to play in these minor league stadiums anymore, I want the real deal.’”
Happy Opening Day!
