{"id":676923,"date":"2026-03-23T22:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/676923\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T22:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:20:15","slug":"jj-wetherholt-to-make-cardinals-opening-day-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/676923\/","title":{"rendered":"JJ Wetherholt To Make Cardinals’ Opening Day Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Infield prospect JJ Wetherholt<\/a><\/strong> has made the Cardinals\u2019 Opening Day roster. President of baseball operations Chaim Bloom passed the news along to reporters, including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat<\/a>. Infielders Thomas Saggese<\/a><\/strong> and Jos\u00e9 Ferm\u00edn<\/a><\/strong><\/strong> as well as outfielder Nathan Church<\/a><\/strong> will also break camp with the club, though outfielder Nelson Vel\u00e1zquez<\/a><\/strong> will be assigned to Triple-A Memphis. A corresponding move will be necessary to open a spot for Wetherholt.<\/p>\n

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The news on Wetherholt is notable but not surprising. It has seemed all winter long as though the Cards had planned for him to get a shot in the big leagues. They cleared out their roster this winter by trading guys like Willson Contreras<\/a><\/strong>, Nolan Arenado<\/a><\/strong> and Brendan Donovan<\/a><\/strong>. Those trade were partly for cost savings but also to open some playing time for younger players as the Cards are rebuilding and need to assess their young guys in a major league environment.<\/p>\n

Wetherholt was one of the main guys who needed some room. The seventh overall pick of the 2024 draft, he climbed to the cusp of the majors last year. He split his time between Double-A and Triple-A, making 496 plate appearances in total. His 14.5% walk rate was excellent and almost as high as his 14.7% strikeout rate. He produced a combined .306\/.421\/.510 batting line, which translated to a 154 wRC+. He stole 23 bases on the year. His defense at shortstop was considered good enough for him to stay there as a big leaguer but he also played some second and third base.<\/p>\n

As the 2026 season drew closer and the annual top 100 lists came out, Wetherholt was in the top 10 of most of them. But at the beginning of the season, the Cards had a fairly crowded infield. Masyn Winn<\/a><\/strong> is one of the best defensive shortstops on the majors and is controlled for another four seasons. They had Arenado at third. Donovan could bounce around the diamond but played second base more than any other spot.<\/p>\n

As mentioned, the Cards clarified their roster picture over the winter and opened a spot for Wetherholt, though Wynn\u2019s glovework is so strong that he never seemed at risk of being unseated at short. It felt likely that Nolan Gorman<\/a><\/strong> would take over at third, with Wetherholt the favorite for the second base gig. In camp, Wetherholt hit two home runs and also drew walks in 20.5% of his 44 plate appearances. Though he was held back by a .200 batting average on balls in play, he still produced a .212\/.386\/.394 line and 115 wRC+.<\/p>\n

That performance was enough to solidify the expected plan, so the Cards will indeed open the season with Wetherholt on the roster. By giving him an Opening Day spot, they will keep the Prospect Promotion Incentive on the table. Since Wetherholt is a consensus top 100 guy, if he spends enough time on the big league roster to earn a full service year this season, he could net the Cards an extra draft pick by winning Rookie of the Year or finishing top three in MVP voting during his pre-arbitration seasons.<\/p>\n

That will be a secondary concern. For the Cards, the focus is on putting together a core that can get them back to contention. Ideally, Wetherholt will be a big part of that in the long run, though sometimes even the best prospects don\u2019t find immediate success. The Cards are in a position to let him get a lot of reps in order to maximize the chances of him getting acclimated to the big leagues.<\/p>\n

As for the other moves, the Vel\u00e1zquez decision is perhaps the most surprising. In the offseason, the Cards had been looking to add a right-handed complement for their outfield, as Lars Nootbaar<\/a><\/strong> and Victor Scott II<\/a><\/strong> are both lefties. They didn\u2019t sign any such player to a major league deal but brought Vel\u00e1zquez into camp as a non-roster invitee. As of a week ago, it seemed likely<\/a> that Vel\u00e1zquez would be getting a spot, especially with Nootbaar slated to start the season on the injured list.<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1zquez put up a monster .357\/.449\/.667 line in spring training but that evidently wasn\u2019t enough. Perhaps that\u2019s due to roster concerns. As mentioned, the Cards need to open one 40-man spot for Wetherholt. Nootbaar is going to start the season on the 10-day IL but there hasn\u2019t been anything to suggest he will need a move to the 60-day IL. Hunter Dobbins<\/a><\/strong> is still rehabbing a torn ACL from last year. It\u2019s unclear how much longer it will take for him to be game ready.<\/p>\n

Unless Dobbins ends up on the 60-day IL, the Cards will have to remove someone to make room for Wetherholt, whether that\u2019s a trade or designating someone for assignment. Adding Vel\u00e1zquez would have meant another such move. It doesn\u2019t appear Vel\u00e1zquez has any kind of opt-out in his deal, so the Cards will send him to the minors and keep him around without using a roster spot.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Jeffrey Camarati, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Infield prospect JJ Wetherholt has made the Cardinals\u2019 Opening Day roster. President of baseball operations Chaim Bloom passed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":676924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[215234,285227,215237,285228,62,242369,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-676923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-jj-wetherholt","tag-jose-fermin","tag-nathan-church","tag-nelson-velazquez","tag-sports","tag-thomas-saggese","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116280821577475603","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}