Ranking the 10 most valuable Cardinals who will define their future

#1 - 2B JJ Wetherholt

Previous Rankings: Sep. '25 - #1, May '25 - #5

Coming into the 2026 season, JJ Wetherholt was a favorite to win National League Rookie of the Year as a consensus top-five prospect in the sport. While Cardinals fans were very excited to see him debut, I don't think anyone could have predicted how good he would be so far.

Through his first 32 big league games, Wetherholt has posted a .246/.365/.459 slash line with seven home runs, 12 extra-base hits, 16 runs batted in, and 27 runs scored to go with four stolen bases. His 134 wRC+ ranks sixth in a stacked rookie class, and he's tied with Kevin McGonigle for the most fWAR among the first-year players (1.5).

Wetherholt's calling card as a prospect was his elite feel for the strike zone, forcing pitchers to attack him in the zone, and he then knows how to attack mistake pitches with powerful swings while doing what he can with pitches that are not as optimal to do damage with. But what has been surprising so far is just how powerful a bat he's swinging so far, and how he's also already playing top-end defense at second base.

Saturday night was a perfect example of this. While he hasn't been productive at the plate against the Dodgers in the first two games of the series, Wetherholt has made multiple great plays already, helping hold the Dodgers' offense in check and get the Cardinals two wins over the reigning World Series champions.

Wetherholt is currently on pace for 35 home runs, 60 extra-base hits, 20 stolen bases, and 133 runs scored, and he hasn't even been swinging the bat well until the last week. Prior to waking up in a big way during the series in Pittsburgh, Wetherholt was maintaining value at the plate by constantly getting on base through drawing walks, getting hit by pitches, or squeaking singles around as he could. But now? He's making pitchers pay when they give him something to hit.

There are a few reasons why I gave Wetherholt the nod over Walker and Herrera. First is the fact that the Cardinals have him under club control through the 2031 season, while both Walker and Herrera would be free agents after the 2029 season. Second, Wetherholt has an extremely high ceiling as a player, and while it is not as high as Walker's and may not be as high as Herrera's, his floor seems to be much higher than both of them as well.

When Walker has struggled in past years, he's been one of the worst players in baseball. If Herrera's bat isn't playing, he's currently a below-average defensive catcher or just a DH. But Wetherholt knows how to be an above-average player at the plate even when he's swinging the bat well, and his defense and baserunning allow him to provide immense value as well.

The fact that you can make a strong argument for any of those three players, and then you still have Winn, Burleson, Rodriguez, Baez, Doyle, Mathews, Franklin, Cijntje, and more behind him is incredible.

The Cardinals really do feel set to turn this around in a big way over the next few seasons, and hey, so far they are doing that literally right now. But to think that the young pitching hasn't even come yet, these young Major League bats have more room to grow, more young position players are coming, Bloom has a collection of draft picks to use, and as clean a slate financially as he could have to work with gives the Cardinals one of the brightest futures in the sport.

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