JJ Wetherholt Signs Eight-Year Deal With Cardinals

JJ Wetherholt is one of the biggest All-Stars this year, but he still had a very good finish in the first half of his rookie season. On Friday, he agreed to an eight-year contract extension that will run through the 2034 season. Wetherholt is hitting .259/.356/.399 with a 114 wRC+ and 3.5 WAR, the latter number leading St. Louis. Louis Cardinals and ranks second among all second basemen, in a virtual tie with Brice Turang and behind only Luis Arraez, who recorded his twelfth win from his time as a DH. The eight-year deal ensures Wetherholt will make $112.5 million, with the potential to earn an additional $20 million in MVP votes and All-Star appearances. He’s also getting a $2 million signing bonus this fall, ensuring he’ll get something soon if the upcoming CBA negotiations prove to be an extension.

We could argue all day that Wetherholt is the most glaring All-Star omission this year, but with eight of the top 10 WAR basemen uncapped, and a ton of other positions worth digging into, I’d have to write a whole separate article to answer that question. But there’s no denying that Wetherholt is having a great rookie season, and is one of the favorites to win the NL Rookie of the Year award when it’s over.

A 2024 first-round pick out of West Virginia, Wetherholt was expected to march in the minors very quickly, and that prediction turned out well. After Palm Beach’s professional debut in the Florida State League during the draft year, Wetherholt began 2025 at Double-A Springfield, and it took only a few months to hit .300/.425/.466 before he earned a promotion to Triple-A Memphis, where he pitched even better and added power to the mix.

Although it was never guaranteed that he would start the season in the majors, he entered spring training in the best position to do so among baseball’s deep infield phenoms (Kevin McGonigle, Konnor Griffin, Colt Emerson, Jesús Made, Leo De Vries, and I was able to continue this in the longest bracket). Trades for Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan cleared the deck for Wetherholt, provided he didn’t completely blow up in the spring. He didn’t.

The Cardinals prepared for his immediate arrival, making sure to give him plenty of playing time in 2025 at second base and third base, considering Masyn Winn was entrenched as their starting shortstop. Arriving at the keystone, Wetherholt has started to play the position, his +15 FRV nearly double that of the next best in the league, the trio of Arraez, Turang, and Nico Hoerner at +8. Notably, 15 runs is a defense high even in a full season, and Wetherholt already ranks sixth among second basemen in single-season FRV, though note that the stats only go back to 2016. DRS is almost amazing. Adding Wetherholt to Winn gave the Cardinals one of the best centerfields of the Statcast era.

Wetherholt’s emergence as a breakout star isn’t the only reason the Cardinals, who enter the season in a rebuilding phase, remain competitive in the NL Central. While catching the Brewers and their 8 1/2-game lead is a tall order, at 50-45, the St. Louis is just a game away from the playground. If Jordan Walker can maintain his blistering year, then (2.7 WAR, 142 wRC+) and Wetherholt (3.5 WAR, 114 wRC+), along with Winn (1.4 WAR, 83 wRC+), All-Star catcher/DH Iván Herrera (1.5 WAR, 127 WRRCle), and first baseman 121 WARRCle 122 wRC+) could combine to make a core of a good position player to build on. Also, the Cardinals have some promising prospects in the upperclassmen who could strengthen that team for years to come.

You didn’t think I’d try to sneak out of here without a Wetherholt guess, did you? This projection takes place during the All-Star break, so it’s hot to press, no matter what version of the press’s computer system.

Even with the usual (statistically necessary) skepticism found in the projection system, ZiPS is very positive about Wetherholt’s theory. He’s not expected to hit more than 15-20 home runs a year or be strong when it comes to batting average, but he looks like an above-average contributor at the plate who should have a good amount of All-Star nods in the future – and that’s a defensive projection of 10-12 runs above average. The deal buys five years of club control, not the full six (since it doesn’t include the 2026 season), and ZiPS would have been content, like Konnor Griffin, to extend his contract in the $160 million range. (This is subject to MLB’s current collective bargaining agreement, which could obviously change in the next CBA. Since Dan isn’t a wizard, he doesn’t know what the new deal will be.)

I hope the Cardinals continue to sign their offensive core. With excellent defense at shortstop and, at times, a mid-league bat, Winn could be an excellent extension candidate. However, because he will have three years of service time after 2026, he is about to enter his first arbitration year, which means the team will not receive a pre-arbitration discount on the terms, making a deal more difficult. St. Louis should at least talk to Walker about what it takes to stretch him long-term, though that sounds pretty risky given his up-and-down career. Burleson, who is solid at the plate but has a lower ceiling than Walker, Wetherholt, and Winn, could be the club’s next likely extension. Considering the Cardinals haven’t had much success developing their pitching prospects, they may need to bolster their rotation and bullpen through free agency, and if so, they’d probably want to be certain of some spending on the player side of things.

Regardless of what happened to others, when it came to Wetherholt, the Cardinals did what they needed to do. They locked up a player who looks set to anchor their infield for the next decade, who should play a key role on the Cardinals’ next teams. The core that led St. Louis in four consecutive postseasons from 2019 to 2022 is gone, and lately, the team has been defined more by the players it trades than the ones it keeps. As a small market group that relies on reaching a weight over weight of demographics through its loyal fans, that’s not the best situation to be in. Now, at least, Wetherholt is one player the Cardinals are keeping. They would be wise to make him the first of many young stars to stick around.