10 bold predictions for the Cardinals trade deadline and rest of the 2024 season

Bold Prediction #3 - JJ Wetherholt is a top 20 prospect in baseball by season's end

While most prospect lists have yet to be updated with the new class of MLB draftees included in them, ESPN's Kiley McDaniel already has JJ Wetherholt among his top 40 prospects in the game, and if everything people say about him is true, I believe we will see Wetherholt very high on top 100 prospect lists very soon.

Before the draft, Baseball America did a primer on where we should expect to see some of the best prospects end up on top 100 lists when drafted. Wetherholt was the third player on their board overall, and their top two prospects were expected to slot into the top 30 comfortably, so I imagine Wetherholt will be around that range or slightly lower when they do their updates here soon.

Coming into the 2024 collegiate season, Wetherholt was the consensus best player in the class according to almost every scouting outlet, but a reoccurring hamstring injury that popped up last summer and caused him to miss significant time this spring brought down his stock a bit. Still, it's hard not to highly rate a guy who slashed .449/.517/.787 with 16 HR and 60 RBI in 55 games in the Big 12 as a sophomore last year. Even while working his way back from the hamstring injury this year, he still slashed .331/.472/.589 and maintained an elite feel for the strike zone and bat-to-ball skills.

Let me be clear, this is going to be a prediction, not an expectation. Expectations are something that I'll kind of hold a player to and be disappointed if they do not match that bar. Wetherholt does not need to be flashy immediately, but I predict that he will be, and we'll start to rise quickly within the Cardinals' system and among prospect rankings.

Let's say Wetherholt is in the 30s on most prospect lists when they update here soon. I think his early production in the lower levels of the minors, mixed with the potential scouts saw in him before the draft and the graduation of four to eight prospects in the top 30 of those lists will help boost Wetherholt's stock significantly.

I also think it's worth noting that there is a really good chance the Cardinals have three top 50 prospects in baseball at the end of the year with Wetherholt and starters Tink Hence and Quinn Mathews. While we knew the Cardinals were going to be adding a significant talent at number seven this year, we had no idea Wetherholt would fall into their laps, and the rise of Mathews has been a significant story as well.