The Cardinals are about to get a glimpse at JJ Wetherholt's true potential

For St. Louis Cardinals rookie JJ Wetherholt, 2026 has been a year of firsts. It's his first taste of the major leagues, his first time playing in a 162-game grind, his first hit, his first home run, and we could go on. But not every first within baseball is going to be a positive, and with Wetherholt now mired in his first slump of the season, what he does to adapt will provide the first major hint at what kind of player he is.

From the start of the regular season through April, the young hotshot was living up to all of the hype, showing a polished approach in the batter's box and hitting .256 with an .856 OPS and seven home runs. But since the calendar flipped to May, Wetherholt has been in a funk, hitting just .182 with a .540 OPS. He has one extra-base hit on the month and is 10 for his last 55.

The Cardinals' next few games will be the clearest look yet at what Wetherholt could become

A common refrain from baseball players is that reaching the major leagues is easy; it's sticking around that's the hard part. Plenty of hitters can find success when they arrive in the big leagues for the first time and there's no scouting data to go off of. The players who never make it any farther are those who aren't able to adapt when pitchers figure them out. For those who do have the staying power, one of the largest separators between your run-of-the-mill hitter and a star is how quickly a player can emerge from a dry spell.

The Cardinals' next four series will be against all four National League Central opponents, and with those games meaning the most for each team's position in the standings, the divisional foes will be familiar with Wetherholt's strengths and weaknesses. His main bugaboos throughout his minor league and major league career have been breaking balls and off-speed pitches. In 2026, he's hit just .178 against breaking balls and .212 against soft stuff. It wouldn't be surprising to see the Cardinals' next few opponents feed Wetherholt a steady diet of breaking balls and change-ups to see if he can properly attack or lay off of those pitches.

Wetherholt will look to replicate Jordan Walker's quick rebound at the plate

The much-improved Jordan Walker impressed onlookers at the beginning of the season with his new approach at the plate and improved ability to lift the ball, but the true signs of a breakout didn't emerge until he fell into a slump. In a 13-game stretch from April 14 through April 29, Walker hit just .216 and struck out 22 times in 51 at-bats, and Cardinals fans waited with bated breath to see if Walker could find the performer that he had been earlier or if he was just a flash in the pan and would return to his old habits. Walker rebounded splendidly, hitting .339 in his next 16 games, and his ability to pull himself out of a tailspin after pitchers learned how to attack him was the moment when most fans likely realized that Walker was for real.

Wetherholt's struggles recently aren't exactly the same as Walker's were. Walker was falling into old habits, reopening his batting stance, hitting more ground balls and more frequently chasing pitches out of the zone. Wetherholt is striking out more often. but he's still remaining disciplined at the plate and taking walks, which could suggest that he doesn't need to completely overhaul his strategy at the plate.

A player's first season will always be a learning curve, and Wetherholt has appeared to handle everything well so far. The Cardinals and their fans will be watching the prized rookie like a hawk to see how he responds to his first taste of adversity at the plate, and if he can break out of it soon, it might be a sign that the Cardinals have something special in their talons.

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