St. Louis Cardinals Top Prospect Takes No Mercy on Building Behind Right-Field Fence

A big stone building sits behind the right field fence at Hammons Field in Springfield, Mo., home of the Double-A Springfield Cardinals. One of the large ads hanging from the side is for Mercy, a health provider in the area.

Well, JJ Wetherholt – the top prospect in the St. Louis Cardinals system, provided no mercy for the building on Sunday, slamming a full-count pitch from left-hander Spencer Giesting of the Amarillo Sod Poodles (Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate) high off the building on Sunday to drive in two runs and take a 2-0 first-inning lead.

Springfield won 6-1.

Exit velocity and distance weren't available, but it left the park fast and flew far.

It was the second home run in two games for Wetherholt, who is in his first full season of minor league ball after the Cardinals selected him in the first round, No. 7 overall, in the 2024 MLB Draft.

Now 22, he played college ball at West Virginia. As a sophomore, he hit .449 to win the NCAA Division I batting title and won Big 12 Player of the Year.

The shortstop appeared in 29 games at Single-A Palm Beach last summer, scoring 19 runs and driving. He skipped the High-A level, and in 27 games thus far at Springfield, he has three homers and 16 RBIs.

MLB Pipeline ranks him as the No. 20 overall prospect in baseball and had this to say about Wetherholt:

Starting slightly open from the left side before closing his stance with a leg raise, Wetherholt had some of the best bat-to-ball skills in his Draft class, running as high a contact rate as 89.7 percent as a sophomore in 2023. He continued to show a keen eye in the Florida State League and performed well with an all-fields approach against most pitch types. He ran a 104.5 mph 90th-percentile exit velocity, exhibiting the above-average power that kicks his offensive profile up a notch.

St. Louis has Masyn Winn ahead of Wetherholt at shortstop. The way Wetherholt is playing, the Cardinals could have a decision to make on his next stop shortly.