MLB prospect expert finally sees a true superstar in the Cardinals' farm system

For all of the success the St. Louis Cardinals have had on the field this year, most fans don't buy into there being much of a ceiling for the club due to the lack of star power in their lineup and pitching staff.

According to Keith Law of The Athletic, though, that superstar power should be making his debut in St. Louis very soon.

Keith Law calls Cardinals top prospect JJ Wetherholt a superstar

In an interview on 101 ESPN's midday show "BK and Ferrario", Brandon Kiley and Alex Ferrario had Law on as a guest to talk about the Cardinals' draft from this past weekend and the state of the Cardinals' farm system. Law, when discussing the Cardinals' system, heaped massive praise onto Wetherholt that should excite all Cardinals fans.

"I can't say enough good things about JJ Wetherholt," Keith Law said on 101 ESPN's "BK and Ferrario". "He's a superstar. I just saw him again on Saturday at the Futures Game; he's going to hit. He's absolutely going to hit. He's gonna come up, I mean, he should come up this year. He's going to be ready. They'll figure out where to play him. I'm not even worried about that. If you have to move him to second base, fine. I don't care. He needs to be in the batter's box."

Kiley followed up by asking Law more about what he meant when he said Wetherholt is a superstar, and Law elaborated by saying Wetherholt can be a5 WAR player or more, the kind of bat who can post a .320 batting average consistently (a rarity in today's game) and do so while putting up 12-15 home run power, if not better, because his swing is so good. He went on to say that Wetherholt is the kind of player who you give the eight-to-ten-year extension to and you build your lineup around him long-term.

You can catch the full conversation with Keith Law on 101 ESPN at the 33:51-minute mark in their stream, and you can find that by clicking the link here or the embedded video below.

I love that Kiley asked the follow-up question that he did, because in today's day and age, many of us can be too loose with the terms "star" or "superstar". While star seems to be a word that everyone defines differently, superstar is supposed to be reserved for truly top-end players, as there should be very few "superstars" in the game at one time. Law is not someone who gives that kind of label out liberally, so for Law to be that high on Wetherholt means something.

Law, in his most recent rankings of his top 50 prospects in baseball back in May, had Wetherholt as the 12th-ranked prospect in all of baseball and ahead of names like Jac Caglianone, Kevin McGonigle, Chase Burns, Travis Bazzana, and Futures Game MVP Jose De Paula. My guess is that once Law posts his next top 50 prospect list, Wetherholt will fall squarely in the top 10.

For context, in 2024, only 18 position players put up 5+ fWAR seasons, and only three hitters (Bobby Witt Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Aaron Judge) posted a batting average of .320 or better. With Wetherholt's elite feel for the strike zone, that would likely put him as a near .400 on-base percentage guy as well (which only six players posted a .390+ OBP in 2024), and his gap power could easily put him among the league leaders in doubles as well.

While some people may look at 12-15 home run power and say that's not a superstar, Law himself said he may not be giving Wetherholt enough credit there due to how good his swing is and how much power he already taps into. If you watch Wetherholt hit, he's not a pull happy hitter, rather he is so good at hitting the ball the other way, and many of his home runs or hard hit doubles are smacked to the opposite field.

As someone who thinks too many fans put too much emphasis on batting average (and even Law said that he himself doesn't emphasize that much in his evaluation either), the ability to potentially hit .320+ at the big league level would put him in rare company in today's game and would allow him to frequently do damage at the plate.

This is also different than someone like Luis Arraez, who, although he has posted incredible batting averages most of his career, he's done so by basically being a "singles merchant". Arraez's career high in home runs is 10, and he's only hit more than 20 doubles three times in his career. Wetherholt, if he hits his ceiling, is the kind of bat who could hit for an elite average while getting closer to 20 or more home runs and 30-40 doubles in a season.

If you tuned into the MLB Futures Game on Saturday, you got to see that kind of profile in action, as Wetherholt laced a double off the left-center field wall to lead off the game for the National League, showing just how advanced of a hitter he is already and how special his tools can be when they are firing on all cylinders. Wetherholt was the projected number one pick for the 2024 MLB Draft, but fell to the Cardinals at seventh overall due to a hamstring injury he suffered in his junior year. Believe it or not, as a sophomore the year before, Wetherholt slashed .449/.517/.787 (1.304 OPS) with 16 home runs and 60 RBI in 55 games playing in the Big 12 Conference.

It's still crazy that the Cardinals were able to take Wetherholt last year, and after a recent promotion to Triple-A, Wetherholt is knocking on the door of a big league debut. Once he does make it to St. Louis, look out. He seems to be a special player.ke