J.J. Wetherholt made a strong impression in his MLB debut

In the season's opening series, the St. Louis Cardinals' lineup was on fire, starting with young J.J. Wetherholt.

In fact, the team's top prospect and the fifth-best prospect in all of MLB hit his first career home run in the majors on Opening Day, recorded his first game-winning hit in the second game of the season, and added another hit to his tally in the third game of the season on Sunday.

Overall, Wetherholt is batting .308 with an OPS of .872, including one home run, four RBIs, one stolen base, one walk, and two runs scored.

And that hasn't just caught the attention of Cardinals fans, but also his teammates, including Alec Burleson, who says there's “something special” about Wetherholt.

Super cool. Super special. Kudos to him. He made his first plate appearance; you could tell he was a little nervous. But he shook it off and did his thing. I think we have something special in JJ, and I think he's going to contribute not only to a lot of wins this year but also in the future.

Of course, the sample size is small—we're only talking about three games. But if this is the version of Wetherholt we'll see throughout the 2026 season, it immediately changes the outlook for the Missouri club, which currently holds a record of two wins and one loss.

The best example of this came in the season opener, when the Cards gave up six runs in the sixth inning but responded with eight runs of their own at the plate in the bottom of the inning.

It remains to be seen how long this will last.

Created by humans, assisted by AI.