Wetherholt's 1st Spring Training homer a noteworthy occasion

JUPITER, Fla. -- Possessing an insatiable desire to try and learn from every situation -- good or bad -- Cardinals’ rookie shortstop JJ Wetherholt ends each night by crafting a hand-written journal so detailed that he even includes how many ounces of caffeine he ingested.

For example, when Wetherholt had a few shaky at-bats earlier in the week, he reminded himself in the journal that he had over-strided at the plate in certain instances and later erred by under-striding -- something he corrected a day later when he blasted two balls off the wall in a live batting practice session.

Wetherholt’s journal entry on Sunday night will likely have nothing but positive vibes after he smashed his first home run in an MLB Spring Training game. The top-ranked prospect in the Cardinals' organization, per MLB Pipeline, went with a 94 mph tailing fastball and drove it 345 feet over the wall in left field. The three-run blast, which left the bat at 100.6 mph, per Statcast, briefly gave the Cardinals a 5-4 lead in a game they would eventually lose 11-6 to the Astros.

“It felt better than my first hit, for sure, because that was a little blooper,” said Wetherholt, who was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and three RBIs. “I knew I hit it pretty well, but you never know at this stadium, because the ball doesn’t fly too well here. So I was just tracking and thinking, ‘This is either going out or it’s getting caught.’”

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol -- who said he plans to alternate Masyn Winn and Wetherholt at shortstop over the next week to keep either one of them from overextending early in Spring Training -- has already been impressed with the prep work and studious nature of the middle infielder the Cardinals took with the No. 7 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. Marmol said he loves Wetherholt’s eagerness to get something out of every day he’s in big league camp.

“I like those guys where it’s just everything is baseball and they love the game and love studying it,” Marmol gushed. “He seems to fit into that [mold] where he’s going to make fast adjustments. He’s not going to go home and not think about what just happened. He’s going to come back [tomorrow] as a better version of himself every day.”

Wetherholt said he tried to not make too much of his first start in an MLB spring game and he never felt overwhelmed by nerves at any point. He said that his pregame prayer was about not making the day all about himself and instead focusing on his effort level. He said he tried to treat the game like he was playing T-ball years earlier with no focus on the surroundings and instead just enjoying the game.

While Wetherholt didn’t get the ball from his first Spring Training home run, he did have plans to journal later in the night and try and capture all his emotions from the day.

“I was able to spend a lot of time around here during the offseason, just getting familiar more and more with the staff and they’ve put some faith in me, which is huge,” said Wetherholt, who teamed with second baseman Nolan Gorman to turn a nifty double play to end the first inning. “It goes a long way seeing your name in the lineup in the second [Spring Training] game. They believe in me, and I should believe in myself, too.”