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Cardinals top prospect JJ Wetherholt's early exit from game sparks injury speculation

After initial concern that the Cardinals' top prospect could have suffered an injury, reports indicate he was suffering from an illness.
ByJosh Jacobs|
Mar 5, 2025; West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; St. Louis Cardinals left feilder JJ Wetherholt (87) runs to second base against the Houston Astros during the second inning at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. Mandatory Credit: Rich Storry-Imagn Images
Mar 5, 2025; West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; St. Louis Cardinals left feilder JJ Wetherholt (87) runs to second base against the Houston Astros during the second inning at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. Mandatory Credit: Rich Storry-Imagn Images | Rich Storry-Imagn Images

The St. Louis Cardinals have had terrible injury luck with their prospects to begin the year, and now their top-ranked player in the farm system may be dealing with one as well.

Wetherholt made the final out of the top of the first inning on Friday night for the Springfield Cardinals at second base, but once the bottom of the first came around, he was pulled from the game and did not take his at-bat. There has been no information given yet about why Wetherholt was removed from the game, but it is fair to say that more often than not, this is a sign of an injury.

Cardinals' top prospect JJ Wetherholt was removed from Double-A game on Friday night due to flu-like symptoms

Kyle Reis, who initially brought the situation to attention, stated later that the move was merely precautionary from the Cardinals, and Derrick Goold later confirmed that indeed no injury occurred, but instead Wetherholt was removed due to flu-like symptoms.

This is good news considering what some of the alternatives could have been. Wetherholt

During the lead up to the 2024 MLB Draft, Wetherholt was widely expected to be the first or second player off the board along with Travis Bazzana, but a Grade 3 hamstring injury held him out for much of his final season, and that could over him caused him to slide on draft night and allow the Cardinals to snag his talent with the seventh overall pick.

While Wetherholt returned to play for West Virginia after the injury and has not had any issues with it since joining the Cardinals organization, but that is certainly an injury that you have to worry about beyond the initial issue. Hamstring ailments can come back on players, and so it would be great news if that has nothing to do with what happened here with Wetherholt.

While the Cardinals' first-round pick got off to a slow start this year, he's been on fire as of late. Even after failing to record a hit in his first 17 plate appearances (although he did draw a walk), Wetherholt now has a .364/.453/.523 slash line in 53 plate appearances, good for a 169 wRC+. That is already extremely impressive, and even more so when you take into account he had just 126 plate appearances at Single-A last year prior to skipping High-A going into this year.

I'll update the situation as we know more information on Wetherholt's status.

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