Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Wetherholt Wins MVP! What Position Will He Play In St. Louis?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Where will top prospect and newly crowned Texas League MVP, JJ, Weatherhole play if and when he gets to the major leagues next season? We'll tackle that question today on Locked on Cardinals. You are locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinals fans. My name is J.D. Haffrin and I am a former national radio sports anchor, born and raised in St. Louis, and a lifetime Cardinals fan. I'm your host for Locktown Cardinals, part of the Locktown Podcast Network covering your team every day. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving you all the info about the birds on the bat.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Today's episode brought to you by Fandall. Right now new customers can bet you's $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. So download the app today. On today's show, we'll be talking about last night's win in San Francisco, another Michael McGreevy start and yet another W in the win column. how it affects the playoff picture overall in the National League, who's in and who's out right now.

Starting point is 00:01:07 Cardinals, they're three and a half back. I mean, they're still alive. But we start today. First of all, we have breaking news, which just happened just a few moments ago. It was announced that Major League Baseball will implement a challenge system for balls and strikes in 2026, the ABS system, which you saw them use in spring training.

Starting point is 00:01:27 You've seen them use it in the minor leagues. They also use it to the All-Star break, I think this year too. But it has been voted in. So the robot umpiring is coming next year. The teams will receive two challenges to dispute calls by the home plate umpire. I'm looking forward to that because there are just way too many blown calls by umpires behind the plate. We, we, we just want to get the calls right.

Starting point is 00:01:51 That's really the whole point of us. There was a big miss last night. It wasn't a ball strike miss that I'm complaining about, but there was one last night at the foul ball. Jordan Walker's foot, which was crazy that that was not called a foul ball. But I digress. But anyway, so that's the big news that happened today across Major League Baseball. But as for the Cardinals, we're going to talk about J.J. Weatherholt right now. You know, this has been on my mind for, I don't know, a couple of weeks now.

Starting point is 00:02:24 I've been thinking about what this 2026 season is going to look like and what it's going to look like with J.J. Weatherholt as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, the number one prospect and number six overall and Major League Baseball at an outstanding first full year in the minor league. So good, he was just named the Texas League MVP on Tuesday as well. Congratulations to JJ. According to our friend Jeff Jones, that's four straight Cardinals to win it with JJ, catcher Jimmy Crooks, Thomas Cajee, and the ghost of Moises Gomez wherever he is. It was also a winner. Dylan Carlson also won it back in 2019. So not too shabby. But JJ is what we're going to be specifically talking about in this first segment.

Starting point is 00:03:04 After being taken number seven overall in the 2024 draft, all JJ has done is hit at every level that he's gone to. After getting his feet wet in 2024 at Palm Beach, he started this year at AA Springfield, hit 3007 home runs, 34 RBIs, 14 stolen bases in 62 games, the OBP at 425, the slugging at 466, the OPS at 891, so good that he was just named the Texas League. League MVP. July 7th gets called up to AAA Memphis and not much really changes. The guy just kept hitting 47 games for the Redbirds. He hit 314, 10 home runs, 25 ribbies and nine stolen bases. The OBP dropped a smidge to 416. Nothing alarming with the slugging up to 562, the OPS up to 978. Overall, he finishes his first full season in pro ball hitting 306 with 17 home.

Starting point is 00:03:59 runs, 59 RBIs, 23 stolen bases with an OVP of 421, slugging 510, OPS of 931, over 109 games, and 408 at bats. And just to put that into perspective of how good JJ has been. The normal stats speak for themselves, but like the OBP of 421 would be second only to Aaron Judge at the big league level. The slugging of 510 would have them inside the top 15. And the OPS would be top six. It is safe to say the guy can hit the baseball with the best of them

Starting point is 00:04:36 in the minor league so far. So far. The big question is, is he ready for the major leagues? Is it time to make him a bigger part of things here in the upcoming season of 2026?

Starting point is 00:04:51 As desperate as the Cardinals are to add to their big league roster, I should say, with exciting young talent like JJ. We also got to kind of keep in mind that he's only had 513 of bats in the minor league so far. He's played 138 games, so not even a full Major League season yet. At the same time, with this team starving for some sort of excitement, having JJ on the roster would be something I believe fans will want to come out to watch. I know I would. I know I want to go see him,

Starting point is 00:05:23 just as I was excited to see Jordan Walker when he was called up. I am in the the same boat here with JJ Weatherhole. If he's going to be up on the team, I want to go out and watch him. I want to see this guy play. And if the goal is to put the most talent on the roster and on the field at the major league level, then JJ is certainly going to be in that conversation based on his offense alone. The next question is, where does he play, though, at the big league level?

Starting point is 00:05:52 He was a shortstop in college. He also played some second base, been a shortstop for most of his 138. games in the minor leagues, has played 85 of them at shortstop, 20 at second base, 12 at 3rd, and 21 at DH. If there is a position on the infield for the Cardinals that is 100% not open for business, it is the shortstop position where Mason Wynn currently resides. He's coming off an outstanding year defensively that should win him. His first goal glove award, the offense hasn't quite come around as quickly as we had hoped, but he was pretty darn good in the first path this year and was doing very well before the knee started to to bother him a little bit.

Starting point is 00:06:35 That knee issue, it popped up, zapped him of his power, the running ability that he possessed for the rest of the year. So he was, you know, kind of playing on one leg, basically, was able to pull it off defensively, but at the plate, it was noticeable. So the bottom line is Mason Winner's shortstop. You're not moving him around anywhere. So where does JJ go? Now the argument is, second third base those are the spots right you're not going to put him at first base but the argument for second base is that dude who was throwing arm not being his strongest attribute that he's got nobody's saying his arm is sucks that it's not me good because it's fine got a grade 50 out of 80 at MLB pipeline it's just not you know he doesn't have a cannon

Starting point is 00:07:20 that he's working with uh so naturally sliding over to second base would make some sense he's got the range and mobility of a shortstop. Nobody has any issues with that. So it seems like that would make sense to have him. And Mason went up the middle. Hello, that's pretty good. But at this moment, you currently have your lone All-Star and Brennan Donovan

Starting point is 00:07:42 playing second base more times than not. So how about third base? Well, let's go over there. Again, the throwing arm is a bit of a question. They think it's strong enough to play third base. They're not worried about it. but, you know, sometimes you like to have a better arm over at the hot corner. But you've also got currently Nolan Aronado is still there for right now.

Starting point is 00:08:03 If he's moved and signs point to that is going to happen this off season, you've got Nolan Gorman ahead of them, although we thought we were going to trade Nolan Aronado last offseason and that didn't happen. So I'm not going to get ahead of myself, but, you know, it kind of feels like there's more momentum headed in that direction this time around the last year. You've got Nolan ahead of him. Gorman's bat still has not blossom the way you'd hoped. He's regressed a little bit the last couple of years.

Starting point is 00:08:30 But offensively, in Arnano's absence, the defense started to look a whole lot better. As soon as he got to play every day and got more comfortable again over at third base, he didn't look that bad over there. Remember, it was more throwing issues than anything. And I think once he got kind of used to being over there again instead of playing at second, because it's weird. It's weird if you've never been on the infield to go, because I was a short step, And then I started moving around a little bit as needed.

Starting point is 00:08:58 And second base is a weird angle compared to throwing from the other side of the infield. Third base, you know, you got to go all the way across the diamond. Sometimes you're cheating in. Sometimes you're back. It's way different. It is way different. I'm telling you. So I can understand why it took him some time to adjust to get the throwing worked out properly.

Starting point is 00:09:19 But, you know, that's the other side of it. And then unless I forget about Thomas C. Another one of your young prospects, another former Texas League MVP that has proven his worth here in the, obviously in the minors, but in the major leagues over the last, what, month and a half, two months since he got more playing time with Mason Wynn being on and Donovan was out and Arnado was out.

Starting point is 00:09:42 The bat has started to become something that you're like, okay, here he is. We still haven't seen the power yet that he possessed in the minor leagues. but that's another guy who is deserve some time and some endings. There are some who believe the Cardinals could move on from Nolan Aronado and Britton in this offseason to open up spots for Gorman, Weatherholton, Jaycey. Donovan is arbitration eligible next year in the following year before becoming a free agent in

Starting point is 00:10:11 2028, but he's also going to be turning 29 in January. He's not a young pup anymore. If you were going to try and trade him, then this offseason will be a good time to do it. But at the same time, he is so valuable to the St. Louis Cardinals with his ability to play any infield position, as well as the corner outfield spots. You love him. He's kind of your unsung captain of the team, in my opinion. But if you need starting pitching, he's probably your most valuable asset to get something decent in return. It would be painful. Not saying I want it to happen. We all love Vernon Donovan, but business is business. and the Cardinals are desperate for some starting pitching next year due to the injuries they've suffered in the minor leagues and the inability to produce anybody to come up to the major leagues that has been much better than an Andre Palante at this point.

Starting point is 00:11:03 So it's something they need. So you could move Arnado and Gorman, put Donnie a third, when it's short, JJ at second with C.C is your right-handed option off the bench. I don't see any issues there. You could go Gorman at third, J-J-8 second, Donnie and left and move on from Lars Nupar. that's something people have brought up. People have grown a little bit tired of the large new bar like, but look at his analytics. Yeah, but look at his numbers.

Starting point is 00:11:29 Like, cool, all of his stuff's in red, but look at his batting average. Look at his on base percentage. Why are the strikeouts up so far? You can have Victor and Center, Walker, and right. You could try and trade Walker and move Newt to right field and have Donnie in left field. You know, like the new Applebee's commercial that we keep seeing there, are like 80,000 possible combinations.

Starting point is 00:11:52 They could take place depending on who gets traded and who I'm Bloom wants to keep around. So a lot to think about. Which combination do you prefer? I'm curious what your guys is thoughts on this. I got a few of them off of X, but I would love to hear for them. You let me know in the comments section below and on X at L0 underscore Cardinals. And we can talk about it in our Cardinal Confessionals this week. The boys did pick up another win last night, which was great.

Starting point is 00:12:15 And once again, it was you know who on the mound to help lead the way. We'll talk about it next on Lockedown Cardinals. Today's episode brought to you by NutraFol. Now you've probably seen a million ads for hair growth products and thought, sure, like that actually works. There are a lot of products out there. I'm not going to lie to yet. And it's hard to know which ones are actually going to do anything at all for your particular condition. And that's why I'm telling you, you got to give NutraFol a closer look.

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Starting point is 00:14:09 So the birds continue to try and play spoiler down the stretch here, facing the Giants for three. And then they got the Cubs to wrap up the season. The Giants were one of the hottest teams in the league, not that long ago, really. It had surged up the standings and were right there behind the mats for that third wildcard spot. but they have cooled considerably since that time. And the Cardinals did their best to throw a little more, a little more dirt on their 2025 grave site by a beat of them 6 to 5 at Oracle Park in San Francisco. It's a place that I still have not been to yet, which sucks.

Starting point is 00:14:43 But San Francisco is very far away from us here in the Midwest. But I'm told it's one of the best ballparks in baseball. So if you've been there, let me know in the comments section, what you like and dislike about it. maybe there's some cardinal fans that are there for this series. But last night on the mound, it was Michael McGreevy again. And the former first rounder, rookie, has been a breath of fresh air in this rotation since taking over his spot full time for Eric Fetty.

Starting point is 00:15:11 And for whatever reason, even on nights when he doesn't pitch all that well and he's not that sharp, the Cardinals just seem to play better behind him and come away with a victory. And that's exactly what happened on Monday. McGreevy goes five innings. He lost five runs on six hits, two home runs and walks three. Nothing about that says, good job. That was great. You're probably going to get a victory. But yet the Cardinals still win when McGreevy is on the mount. He's now eight and three on the year. And the Cardinals are 11 and 5 in games that he pitches in. In comparison, the Cardinals were 5 and 15 when Eric Fetty was on the mouth, five and 15 and are 11 and 19.

Starting point is 00:15:53 When Andre Palante starts, you want to see where the big discrepancy is in the win-loss totals, right there. Those two starters to go, let me do the math, to go 16 and 34. Like, that's awful, right? And that's what happens when those two guys take the mound. But when McGreevy's out there, they're going 11 and 5. The offense really picked up their young starter, who again, he wasn't sharp last night. A couple of bad pitches led to the home runs. And then there were some that just found holes because he's a pitch to contact guy.

Starting point is 00:16:32 And that's going to happen from time to time where they're going to find holes. And that's what happened last night. But the offense was there for him, had his back, pounded out six runs on 10 hits and helped him defeat future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander in the process. Your offensive stars from last night included Ivan Herrero, clubbed his 18th home run of the season. He's now got seven in the month of September. He, uh, that home run tied the game up at four. After that, the Giants had just taken the lead in the prior inning.

Starting point is 00:17:01 Jose Fermin rips two doubles in this one. Has another RBI plays really well defensively. And does all that damage from the eight hole in the order, which has not been very productive for the Cardinals all season. The eight and nine obviously is where normally your worst hitters are going to be residing and eight nine have been the worst with nine being the worst spot in the lineup overall this season eight not that far behind it so to get some production from whoever's hitting in the eight spot that was huge and Jose Fermin provided that uh he was in the game because alec burleson uh or not

Starting point is 00:17:36 burleson um britton donovan came up and it was feeling i think it was a stiff back or something that he was dealing with but um but yeah that's why he was in and he you know He pulled his own weight. Alec Berlinson had three more hits, pushed his batting average to 293 on the season, which ranks him, and this is going to shock you a little bit. 293 ranks him 10th in Major League Baseball in batting average, 10th overall in the league at 293,

Starting point is 00:18:07 and he's third in the National League. Trey Turner, who's currently injured, hasn't played since September 7th, currently leads the NL with a 305 batting average, followed by Cub second baseman Nico Horner at 299. So there is a chance. It's a remote one, but there is a chance that Burley could catch him and win a batting title. That would be bonkers, right? He's hitting over 500.

Starting point is 00:18:28 No, he's hitting at 500. Sorry. He's hitting at 500 over his last seven games, going 13 for 26 and has been batting 317 in his last 30 games. He's been on a tear. Also, shout out to Jordan Walker. I know you guys, we like to, I should say you guys, because we all kind of do it. We all kind of use him as the punching bag a little bit.

Starting point is 00:18:46 He gets picked on a lot. lot for his lack of being able to develop quicker and to the speed that we want him to. But shout out to Jordan Walker, who ended up knocking in the game-winning run last night by just putting the ball in play and hustling, which is something that I know. Cardinal fans appreciate. Fifth inning, first and third, one out, yanks a ball into the hole between short and third. Willie Adamas makes a nice play to his right, and they try to turn two. Jordan Walker runs very, very well.

Starting point is 00:19:22 Now, he could have easily hit the ball there and then just kind of loafed down first base, upset with himself that he didn't get the ball in the air or hit it harder to drive the run in. But instead, Walker hustles out of the box, beats the throw to first base, which allows the runner on third to score and made it six to four at the time. Insurance run at the time ends up being the game-winning run. And we've all seen guys not hustle on plays just like that. Usually veterans. I'm not going to name names, but usually veterans, but we've seen it.

Starting point is 00:19:55 And it's great to see Jordan Walker busting his ass down the line to avoid the double play. He got screwed over on a double play earlier in the game when he clearly fell the ball off his foot that everyone in the ballpark knew was a foul ball, except the incompetent umpires who are in charge of paying attention to such things. And it causes this weird play because Sejacy's on third. He sees it go off Walker's foot, who runs out of the box anyway because when you hit the ball, you're supposed to run.

Starting point is 00:20:29 Don't let the umpire do it. You run. Those are the rules, right? So Jacey sees it hit him. So he just kind of starts to jog in to home play because he's like, oh, that's a foul ball. But they don't call it. So he gets into a rundown.

Starting point is 00:20:43 at third base. He's out. Walker, who's hustling tries to get the second base while they're screwing around with Cajee. And he gets thrown out at second base by a mile, by the way. It just looked really, really bad. But none of it should have happened. The ums should be embarrassed that something like this, that they allowed that play to continue, something that egregious to take place because it cost the Cardinals who were in a spot to do some damage and add some runs. and they screwed him over. But Jordan Walker hustling, putting the ball in play, not striking out,

Starting point is 00:21:22 these are positive things. Those are things that you like to see. Even when you're not going to get a base hit, you can do the right thing, and you're never going to be embarrassed when you hustle. That's another one of those rules that you find out when you're younger and little league. As long as you hustle, you never embarrass yourself.

Starting point is 00:21:38 And he didn't embarrass himself after that horrible, no call by the young. where Ali tore into their butts too, and as he should have, because that was awful. That was awful. Bolpin shuts it down after McGreevy, four shutout innings, Ryan Fernandez, four straight scoreless appearances now. John King, Calahe, Joe Romero, they finish it off. Solid win, moves them to three and a half back of the final wild card spot.

Starting point is 00:22:04 It also ties them with the Giants. The Giants are now tied with the Cardinals. So if we're going to say the Cardinals are cooked, then I would assume so were the Giants. I would assume that's how they feel right now. But let's take a closer look at it. We'll look at the playoff picture coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. The NFL season is here in Fandola, making sure you're ready for kickoff with a can't miss offer.

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Starting point is 00:23:26 So are you ready to play? Download the Fandall app now by visiting Fandall.com to get started. That's Fandle.com to place your first $5 bet. Thanks for making a lockdown cartels your first list in every day for your second list and check out locked on MLB game night every game every night until a World Series champion is crown. Get local analysis. a national scale. You can find MLB game night on the locked on MLB YouTube channel or wherever you listen to your podcast. So as it stands, the NL has the Brewers who lost again last night to

Starting point is 00:23:59 Mike Schilt and the Padres. They're at the top of the National League, followed by the Phillies and then the Dodgers. Now, the wildcard teams are in order, Cubs, Padres, who clinched their playoff spot with their win last night. Then the Mets and the Reds are tied for the third spot. Just behind them are the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are one game out. Then it's the Cardinals and the Giants at three and a half. Mathematically, still alive, but let's not kid ourselves. The Cardinals are just hoping to reach 500 before the season is over. The Reds are going to be facing the Pirates for three and the Mets have three at the Cubs who were trying to hold on to their top wild card spot, but have the Padres and the Dodgers to worry about.

Starting point is 00:24:41 So things are getting a little crazy. They're getting pretty tight over this final week. And I just can't help when I see the standings and I see three and a half games for the Cardinals, and I just can't help myself but wonder, what if, what if the St. Louis Cardinals hadn't laid an egg and lost four of six against the Colorado Rockies and a very injured Atlanta Braves team during this season. Those are the two I look at. I'm not all embarrassed about getting swept by the Blue Jays or the Red Sox. That's those two series, four of six against the Rockies and the Braves. Eight of 12 games you lost against those two teams.

Starting point is 00:25:28 The Rockies is crazy. The Braves, I know, have some talent. Hell, they're hot as hell right now. They've won nine in a row. They've got talent on that roster. But you flip those two numbers and the Cardinals are right there, man. They're right there. So they'll likely have a chance to put the,

Starting point is 00:25:46 the Cubs in an awkward position in the final series at Wrigley this weekend. So certainly something for everybody to be playing for right now. And like Burleson said in the post game last night, they're just trying to win series. They just go from each one and just try to win the series. That's their focus right now. And they'll have a chance to win another one tonight. Now, unfortunately, Andre Palante is on the mound for the St. Louis Cardinals tonight. And they are two and 13 in his last 15 starts.

Starting point is 00:26:14 So expect disappointment. this evening when they face the Giants top arm in Logan Webb. But I hope they come out fighting. I hope they come out swinging. And I've kind of like the energy they've had, you know, against Milwaukee and then last night's game. So that is good to see. And it's good to see these young guys coming through,

Starting point is 00:26:33 guys like for me and see him Burleson doing what he's doing. And Yvonne Herrera and it's nice, McGreeby doing what he's doing, the bullpen to continue what they've been doing for the most part. You know, it's good. And to know that you've got somebody like J.J. Weatherhole who, you know, again, Texas League MVP announced that today. That's great. That is great news. He's very, very close to being at the major league level. We'll see how things go in the spring. We'll see what kind of decisions are made this offseason.

Starting point is 00:27:04 And we'll see how big his window is to get up to the major league level at the start of next season. But plenty of time in between now and then things most certainly will be interesting for the card. Cardinals and the Cardinal fans. Thank you guys for making Lockedown Cardinals. Your first list of every day if you haven't already. Give us a follow on X at L.O. WonderSquardinals and at JD Sports Radio, TikTok and Instagram on Lockdown Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube and help our channel and love for the team grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on Locked on Cardinals.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Wetherholt Wins MVP! What Position Will He Play In St. Louis?

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