Feb 16, 2026; Jupiter, FL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals infielder JJ Wetherholt (77) during spring training workouts at Roger Dean Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images

Cardinals Pour Gasoline on JJ Wetherholt Hype

Originally posted on St. Louis Cardinals on SI
By Patrick McAvoy | Last updated Mar 3, 2026 8:12 AM ET

If you're looking for more of a reason to be excited about the progress of St. Louis Cardinals No. 1 prospect JJ Wetherholt, look no further.

Wetherholt has played in six games in his first full big league Spring Training camp and is slashing .300/.563/.600 with a 1.163 OPS, one homer, four RBIs, six walks and five runs scored. In comparison, last year he did get into 10 games and slashed .100/.308/.250 with a .558 OPS. Clearly, there has been some improvement there, to say the least.

But his play on the field isn't the only thing that has impressed Cardinals manager Oli Marmol.

"He's impressive, man," Marmol said on "Foul Territory." "He really is. The skillset is what it is. We've talked enough about that. But the mentality is what continues to stand out for me. Like, for example, this guy has been working on his backhand and baseball does what baseball does. It'll test you and he made two errors going to his backhand and then talking to him, he's not sped up. Just the way that he's able to communicate what he was thinking. Why it happened.

JJ Wetherholt has been everything the team could've hoped for

Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images

"What he's doing to correct it is above what you'd normally have for his age. I love his mentality, his competitive nature. The way he's going about camp and how he's responding to things not going his way at times. He's going to help us win a lot of games for years to come, for sure."

"The mentality is what continues to stand out for me."

Oli Marmol praises JJ Wetherholt for the way he's responded throughout camp. pic.twitter.com/cOObsL7FoW
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) March 2, 2026

Wetherholt has looked like the real deal in camp and it certainly seems like all signs are pointing towards him starting on Opening Day for the club in the big leagues. That was already the case coming into camp and only has been amplified by his play seemingly every single day. He almost launched another homer on Monday as well. Wetherholt hit a ball that was projected to go 430 feet, but the wind knocked it down.

This JJ Wetherholt fly out was projected to go 430 feet but completely died with the whipping wind in from centerfield.

107 MPH at 35 degrees. He was fantastic defensively at 2B today as well. pic.twitter.com/TyGiceKtr0
— Aram Leighton (@AramLeighton8) March 2, 2026