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JJ Wetherholt

Cardinals Agree To Sign First-Round Pick JJ Wetherholt

By Mark Polishuk | July 20, 2024 at 1:37pm CDT

The Cardinals have reached agreement with shortstop JJ Wetherholt to a $6.9MM bonus, according to Baseball America’s Carlos Collazo (X link).  Wetherholt’s first pro deal is slightly above the $6,823,700 slot value assigned to the seventh overall pick.

Based on pre-draft rankings, St. Louis might’ve gotten a bit of a steal in nabbing Wetherholt with the seventh pick, as the West Virginia shortstop was a consensus top-four selection.  Fangraphs had Wetherholt as the top prospect in the entire draft class, while Baseball America, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and The Athletic’s Keith Law had him third in their rankings, and MLB Pipeline put Wetherholt fourth.  There was some speculation prior to draft night that the Guardians could take Wetherholt with the first overall pick, but when Cleveland opted for Travis Bazzana, Wetherholt then slid all the way to the Cardinals at seventh overall.

It seems possible that teams might’ve been wary of Wetherholt’s recent injury history, namely a lingering hamstring problem that has cropped up in each of the last two years.  He is also listed at 5’10” and 190 pounds, and thus “doesn’t have the prototypical physical tools and frame of a top pick,” as McDaniel writes.  Drafted as a shortstop, he might end up at second base or third base, with the latter position maybe a question mark depending on his arm strength.

Despite these potential red flags, the Cardinals focused on the big pluses of Wetherholt’s all-around hitting skill, as evaluators praised his batting eye, contact ability, raw power, and ability to hit to all fields.  Seen as perhaps the top available hitter in the draft class, this was enough for Fangraphs to put Wetherholt atop their rankings, and their scouting report also feels “he should be a fine second base defender at peak.”

Wetherholt carries even more import within the Cardinals’ draft class since the team forfeited its second-round pick as a condition of the Sonny Gray signing.  Because Gray rejected the Twins’ qualifying offer last autumn and hit the open market, St. Louis had to give up its second-highest pick in the 2024 draft as well as $500K in international pool money as penalty for inking Gray to a three-year, $75MM contract.  Wetherholt’s bonus will cover the majority of the Cardinals’ overall draft bonus pool of $10,213,000.

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2024 Amateur Draft St. Louis Cardinals JJ Wetherholt

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2024 MLB Draft, First Round Results

By Mark Polishuk | July 14, 2024 at 11:29pm CDT

This year’s amateur draft is officially underway, and we’ll be updating this post throughout the night with every first-round selection.  More details and scouting reports on all these young players are available in pre-draft rankings from Baseball America, Fangraphs, MLB Pipeline, The Athletic’s Keith Law, and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel.  As well, Pipeline has the breakdown of the slot values assigned to each pick in the first 10 rounds, as well as the bonus pool money available to all 30 teams.

The first-round picks…

  1. Cleveland Guardians: Travis Bazzana, 2B, Oregon State
  2. Cincinnati Reds: Chase Burns, RHP, Wake Forest
  3. Colorado Rockies: Charlie Condon, OF/3B, Georgia
  4. Oakland Athletics: Nick Kurtz, 1B, Wake Forest
  5. Chicago White Sox: Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas
  6. Kansas City Royals: Jac Caglianone, 1B/LHP, Florida
  7. St. Louis Cardinals: JJ Wetherholt, 2B/SS, West Virginia
  8. Los Angeles Angels: Christian Moore, 2B, Tennessee
  9. Pittsburgh Pirates: Konnor Griffin, SS/OF, Jackson Prep High School (MS)
  10. Washington Nationals: Seaver King, SS/3B/OF, Wake Forest
  11. Detroit Tigers: Bryce Rainer, SS, Harvard-Westlake High School (CA)
  12. Boston Red Sox: Braden Montgomery, OF, Texas A&M
  13. San Francisco Giants: James Tibbs III, OF, Florida State
  14. Chicago Cubs: Cam Smith, 3B, Florida State
  15. Seattle Mariners: Jurrangelo Cijntje, LHP/RHP, Mississippi State
  16. Miami Marlins: PJ Morlando, OF, Summerville High School (SC)
  17. Milwaukee Brewers: Braylon Payne, OF, Elkins High School (TX)
  18. Tampa Bay Rays: Theo Gillen, OF/MI, Westlake High School (TX)
  19. New York Mets: Carson Benge, OF, Oklahoma State
  20. Toronto Blue Jays: Trey Yesavage, RHP, East Carolina
  21. Minnesota Twins: Kaelen Culpepper, SS, Kansas State
  22. Baltimore Orioles: Vance Honeycutt, OF, North Carolina
  23. Los Angeles Dodgers: Kellon Lindsey, SS, Hardee High School (FL)
  24. Atlanta Braves: Cam Caminiti, LHP, Saguero High School (AZ)
  25. San Diego Padres: Kash Mayfield, LHP, Elk City High School (OK)
  26. New York Yankees: Ben Hess, RHP, Alabama
  27. Philadelphia Phillies: Dante Nori, OF, Northville High School (MI)
  28. Houston Astros: Walker Janek, C, Sam Houston
  29. Arizona Diamondbacks: Slade Caldwell, OF, Valley View High School (AR)
  30. Texas Rangers: Malcolm Moore, C, Stanford

All 30 teams will have picks in the first round this year, though the Mets, Padres, and Yankees all had their first-round selections dropped back by 10 slots.  These three teams surpassed the third luxury tax tier ($273MM) in 2023, and thus their punishment included a 10-space drop in their opening draft choice.

The 2024 draft will take place over three days, consisting of 20 rounds of selections.  Rounds 3-10 will take place on Monday, rounds 11-20 will take place on Tuesday, and the draft’s first 74 picks will come off the board tonight.  Those 74 picks consist of the first two proper rounds, the two Competitive Balance Rounds, two sets of compensatory rounds (giving picks to teams who lost qualifying offer-rejecting free agents), and two Prospect Promotion Incentive picks.

The two PPI selections will go to the Diamondbacks at 31st overall and the Orioles at 32nd overall, awarded since Corbin Carroll and Gunnar Henderson fit all of the criteria for their teams to receive the bonus picks.  Carroll and Henderson won Rookie of the Year honors, both young stars were included on their respective teams’ Opening Day rosters, and were rated as top-100 prospects in at least two of three sets of preseason prospect rankings from Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, and ESPN.

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2024 Amateur Draft Newsstand Ben Hess Braden Montgomery Braylon Payne Bryce Rainer Cam Caminiti Cam Smith Carson Benge Charlie Condon Chase Burns Christian Moore Dante Nori Hagen Smith JJ Wetherholt Jac Caglianone James Tibbs Jurrangelo Cijntje Kaelen Culpepper Kash Mayfield Kellon Lindsey Konnor Griffin Malcolm Moore Nick Kurtz PJ Morlando Seaver King Slade Caldwell Theo Gillen Travis Bazzana Trey Yesavage Vance Honeycutt Walker Janek

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