Several Cardinals top prospects snubbed from All-Star Futures Game

Major League Baseball revealed the rosters for the 2025 All-Star Futures Game on Monday morning.

The next wave of stars to hit baseball will make their appearances in Georgia on July 12th at Truist Park. Of the 51 players included on the two teams, 31 of them are on MLB Pipeline's top-100 Prospects List.

After back-to-back years of sending multiple players to the Futures Game, the St. Louis Cardinals will have just one representative at this year's game.

JJ Wetherholt is the lone St. Louis Cardinals representative at MLB's All-Star Futures Game in Atlanta, Georgia.

JJ Wetherholt is having a fantastic second-year campaign. He's slashing .305/.430/.453 through 57 games at Double-A Springfield to go along with five home runs, 13 stolen bases, and 27 runs batted in. He's walked (41) more than he's struck out (35) this year. His .305 batting average and .430 on-base percentage led all qualified players in the Texas League.

Wetherholt has gotten on base as many times in June as he's gotten out, thanks to 19 walks and 26 hits in the month.

Wetherholt has been one of the best players in Double-A, and he's certainly proven his value as a top-10 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft.

Wetherholt will play for the National League in the Futures Game that will be managed by Chipper Jones. Mark DeRosa, Andruw Jones, Tim Hudson, and Pete Moylan will fill out the coaching staff for Chipper.

In 2024, Tink Hence and Quinn Mathews represented the Cardinals at the Futures Game. Hence didn't make it into the game, but Mathews threw one inning and struck out two batters in his brief appearance.

In 2023, the Cardinals had Tink Hence and Victor Scott II represent the team. Scott came in later in the game to replace Pete Crow-Armstrong, and he went 1-2 with a strikeout and two stolen bases.

Several other Cardinals minor leaguers were deserving of a spot on this year's Futures roster, but they were snubbed in the selection process.

Catcher Leonardo Bernal has been having a fantastic season with Double-A Springfield. Bernal is slashing .288/.358/.502 with 11 home runs and 43 runs batted in. He's also thrown out 16 of 43 would-be base stealers this year. Bernal was recently placed on MLB Pipeline's Top-100 Prospects List.

Left-handed starting pitcher Ixan Henderson is also quietly having a fantastic year with Springfield. He has a 2.75 ERA through 13 starts (68.2 innings). Henderson has struck out 78 batters this year, third most in the Texas League, for a 10.22 K/9 ratio. He's a pitcher on the rise in both the Cardinals' system and across the minors.

Let's also not forget outfielder Joshua Baez, a former top-10 organizational prospect for the Cardinals. Baez has a .298/.394/.509 slash line this year with 10 home runs and 28 stolen bases between High-A Peoria and Double-A Springfield. After a rough couple of years in the minors, Baez has managed to live up to his billing as a prospect.

While Quinn Mathews, Tink Hence, and Tekoah Roby haven't been off to outstanding starts this year, they're all still some of the best pitchers in the minors. They could have been chosen to attend the game as well.

JJ Wetherholt should sufficiently represent the Cardinals at the All-Star Futures Game, but it's mildly disappointing that he's the team's only representative. This nomination is just another feather in Wetherholt's ever-growing cap of accomplishments as a young player.