Cardinals' JJ Wetherholt: Slips to seventh overall

The Cardinals have selected Wetherholt with the seventh overall pick in the 2024 First-Year Player Draft.

A hamstring issue limited Wetherholt to 36 games as a junior at West Virginia, but he has been extremely productive all three years in the Big 12 and during brief stints in summer leagues, including by logging a .978 OPS in eight Cape Cod League games last summer. Wetherholt is a 5-foot-10 middle infielder who most scouts expect to end up at the keystone but who has shown enough flashes at shortstop that he could be given a chance to stick there initially in pro ball. He is a plus runner and went 42-for-50 on stolen-base attempts over the past two seasons. His calling card, however, is a potential 70-grade hit tool that leads this draft class. The lefty-hitting Wetherholt's contact and strikeout rates have been elite en route to a career .370 average with the Mountaineers. He's shown burgeoning power to all fields, tallying 24 homers in 91 games over the past two years, and profiles as a No. 2 hitter in the majors.