ROY candidate Wetherholt placed on IL with right wrist tendinitis
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ST. LOUIS -- A wrist injury has forced the Cardinals to press pause on the standout rookie season for Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt.
The Cardinals placed Wetherholt on the injured list before Sunday’s series finale against the Pirates with right wrist tendinitis.
The 23-year-old is slashing .242/.343/.370 (105 OPS+) with 17 home runs and 14 stolen bases in 130 games this season.
Wetherholt had been managing pain symptoms in his wrist for about a month. The circumstances had worsened in recent days, impacting his production at the plate as he took on added duties filling in at shortstop for injured Gold Glove Award winner Masyn Winn.
“That's obviously the biggest thing is, you know, dealing with pain kind of every day, trying to find ways to manage that,” Wetherholt said. “Some days are better than others. But yeah, you never want to be hurting when you swing, so it’s tough.”
Wetherholt explained that the plan, for a while, had been to manage the pain with treatment -- that the ailment was something he could play through provided the pain didn’t worsen over time.
But his status had lately been trending in the wrong direction on that front, leading to the collective decision to ease off with a stint on the injured list.
“My body just was not really responding to it,” Wetherholt said. “So the doctors said, ‘Yeah, we’re losing that pain battle, so, just kind of get some time.’”
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Wetherholt’s numbers had dipped during the period of this injury, with the leadoff man posting a .200 batting average and .595 OPS in August.
“We agreed to, if it wasn’t going to continue to improve, then we would hit the pause button,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “We got to the point yesterday where it just didn’t feel good. So, we’ll give it the appropriate rest and then move forward from there.”
With August drawing to its end, Wetherholt’s trip to the IL comes with less than a month remaining in the regular season. But there’s no indication as of Sunday that the wrist injury will cause his rookie campaign to end prematurely.
“We do believe that he will play again this year,” Marmol said Sunday morning.
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Losing Wetherholt for any period of time is a tough blow for the Cardinals, who still have postseason aspirations. St. Louis (68-69) entered play on Sunday sitting 4 1/2 games behind the Padres and D-backs for the third and final NL Wild Card spot.
Wetherholt broke camp with the big league club out of Spring Training and debuted as the No. 5 prospect in baseball, per MLB Pipeline. Rather quickly, he’s established himself as one of the best all-around second basemen in the league. According to FanGraphs, Wetherholt has been worth 4.4 WAR, which ranks T-9th most in the Majors.
The majority of Wetherholt’s value stems from sublime defense. He’s accumulated +22 Outs Above Average this season, third most among all MLB players behind only the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. (25) and the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong (23). Only Crow-Armstrong (25) has accrued more Fielding Run Value than Wetherholt’s +21 mark.
In a corresponding move, the Cardinals recalled infielder César Prieto from Triple-A Memphis. Prieto went 2-for-31 in 12 games in a brief Major League stint earlier this season.