JJ Wetherholt went 3-for-5 with a home run, one run scored and one RBI on Saturday as the Cardinals fell 11-9 to the Mariners in a game that swung back and forth until the final outs. It was another sharp line for Wetherholt, who has shown great patience in his first action in the majors.
Through 26 games, Wetherholt is slashing.240 with four homers, 12 RBI, 20 runs scored and four steals, with a.347 wOBA that underscores how much he has already contributed. Saturday’s performance fit the shape of his early major league work: productive, controlled and increasingly hard to ignore.
The setting mattered, too. The Cardinals were forced to keep pace in a high-scoring loss to Seattle, and Wetherholt did his part to keep them in it. For a player still carving out his first stretch in the majors, each game is starting to look less like an introduction and more like evidence that he belongs.
What stands out now is not just the power or the counting numbers, but the consistency behind them. If Wetherholt keeps forcing the issue at the plate the way he did Saturday, the early sample may soon stop looking like a promising start and start looking like a real base to build on.