Leave it to the Cardinals to take all the drama out of the first round last night. After both starting pitchers were gone before the Missouri teams were on the clock, it left a pair of potential stars available. All that remained before possible two-way drama was Kansas City and quite honestly, thank you Royals.
St. Louis had the strongest fit and best overall player profile drop right to them which is still a shock. JJ Wetherholt needs very little introduction from me, as you will see the West Virginia product everywhere this week. All that needs to be said is the middle infielder can flat out play and for hopefully all of his career next to Masyn Winn.
Wetherholt perfectly fits atop the lineup for the Birds on the Bat and catch him when you can in the Minors due to the advanced bat. He should start in Peoria and wouldn’t be out of the question to go higher before the end of this season. That lines him up for another advancement next Spring with a late 2025 introduction under the Arch. On a side note, that is one of the few things I will miss about the Draft taking place at this point in the season.
The plan for the Cards has to be getting him signed quickly (more on that in a bit) but also into games sooner rather than later which also means he won’t get the proper Busch introduction the rest of the high draft picks have in the past. And that’s okay for this advanced player who very well could see action inside of a calendar year. If I had to guess, he profiles best as a second baseman with Nolan Gorman able to handle either of the corner spots, but that discussion can take place much later.
For St. Louis to score a top 35-40 overall prospect is exactly what the system needed, but what do they do for an encore? Day two of the Draft kicks off this afternoon and so much talent will be on the board for the second pick selection. Just going off the MLB rankings, there are a trio of Top 50 and almost 30 of the Top 100 left in play. Sure there are money aspects to be considered, although the Cardinal brass has been known to be creative with the pool.
Now is definitely the time to take a chance on either a High School arm (hello Iowa) or maybe even a fast-moving college hurler to help the higher levels. An advanced arm right out of the gate paired with Wetherholt will bring back shades of the 2020 Draft which was historic for too many reasons. Any way you look at it, St. Louis has already come out ahead and can only keep improving a system that got better overnight.