Cardinals’ top 10 moments of 2026, No. 5: JJ Wetherholt's thunderous debut previews great rookie season

I know JJ Wetherholt is likely going to fall short of winning the 2026 National League Rookie of the Year award, but man, what a first season he had. And it all began with a bomb on Opening Day.

Facing off against the Tampa Bay Rays in his Major League debut, Wetherholt smoked a solo home run to center field off of Rays' starter Drew Rasmussen, scoring the first run of the 2026 campaign for St. Louis and announcing his presence to all of Major League Baseball.

We are following along with the Dealin' the Cards podcast's countdown of the 10 best moments of the 2026 season for the Cardinals, and Wetherholt's Opening Day home run checks in as the fifth best moment of the season for St. Louis.

JJ Wetherholt's arrival to St. Louis dawned a new era in Cardinals baseball

All offseason, it became clear that the Cardinals were setting up Wetherholt to be their Opening Day second baseman, and once they traded away Brendan Donovan to the Seattle Mariners, it felt like a guarantee that it would happen. Wetherholt really impressed the Cardinals down in Spring Training, and he came out firing for St. Louis upon his debut.

Manager Oliver Marmol threw him right into the leadoff spot, quite the honor for a player who had never played in a Major League game. Wetherholt was seen as a top-five prospect in all of baseball and came into the Cardinals system with high pedigree as the seventh overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, and was someone many had expected to go number one overall.

One of the most surprising things about Wetherholt's game this year was his home run output. People expected Wetherholt to be on base a ton and a doubles machine, but hitting 17 home runs in 139 games was probably surprising to many. He also did that while playing half his games at Busch Stadium, maybe the hardest place to hit home runs in baseball this past season. His offensive numbers could have been so much stronger if he didn't play in that run environment this year.

Wetherholt finished the season as a 101 wRC+ hitter, seeing his numbers drop a ton in the second half as he played through a wrist injury. Moving forward, I think most people would expect his offensive output to grow, and considering he was one of the best defenders in baseball this year, that makes his floor very high and his ceiling very high as well. Wetherholt earned himself a nice extension for that very reason.

It would not surprise me at all to see Wetherholt reach 25 home runs in his prime season with a .280+ average and .370+ on-base percentage. Raising that batting average feels important for his upside long-term, but increasing his doubles output has to happen as well. If you told me he'd only hit 15 doubles in 2026, I would've thought he only played like half a season. Wetherholt has the swing and skills to be among the league leaders in doubles, and hopefully he's able to make good on that in 2027 and the future.

Wetherholt had a great rookie year. Yes, winning Rookie of the Year would have been huge, but his future is extremely bright, and that is what matters most.

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