Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt has been selected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America as a finalist for the 2026 National League Rookie of the Year Award. The other finalists for the honor are Mets outfielder Carson Benge and Reds first baseman Sal Stewart.
The winner of this year’s NL Rookie of the Year Award will be announced on MLB Network at 6 p.m. CT on Nov. 9.
Wetherholt, who was the Cardinals’ No. 1 prospect and the No. 5 prospect in baseball entering the 2026 season, according to MLB Pipeline, made St. Louis’ Opening Day roster as its starting second baseman. He proved to have an excellent eye at the plate and a tremendous glove at the keystone position in his first Major League season.
Overall, the 24-year-old produced a .242/.339/.365 slash line with 17 home runs and 14 steals in 15 attempts, ranking in the 75th percentile or better among qualified hitters in expected weighted on-base average (.347, 82nd percentile), hard-hit rate (44.9%, 76th), squared-up rate (30.1, 88th), chase rate (21.2%, 94th), whiff rate (20.2%, 75th), strikeout rate (16.8%, 77th) and baserunning run value (+4, 91st).
Where Wetherholt excelled the most, however, was in the field. His +23 fielding run value, according to Statcast, was not only the highest among MLB second basemen last season, but also the second-highest fielding run value of any player in the game, regardless of position -- trailing only the +26 produced by NL MVP favorite Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Cubs. The same goes for Wetherholt’s +25 outs above average.
It all added up to Wetherholt leading all NL rookie position players in Wins Above Replacement (4.6 per FanGraphs and 4.5 per Baseball Reference).
Selected seventh overall by the Cardinals out of West Virginia University in the 2024 MLB Draft, Wetherholt needed just 138 Minor League games to show he was ready for the big leagues. He posted a .306/.421/.510 slash line with 17 home runs and 23 steals in 109 games across Double-A and Triple-A in 2025, his first full professional season.
The Cardinals signed Wetherholt to an eight-year, $112.5 million contract extension just prior to the All-Star break, further demonstrating the club’s confidence that Wetherholt will be a star-caliber player and part of a core that will lead St. Louis in a return to contention following its longest absence from postseason play since a drought from 1988-95.
“I think his play speaks for itself,” Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom said. “What you might not get to see as much is who he is, how he works, how he prepares, how he learns, how much he wants to be great, how much he cares about winning. All of that is great. He checks those boxes, so we're really, really excited.”
If Wetherholt wins the NL Rookie of the Year Award, he will be the first Cardinals player to do so since Albert Pujols in 2001. He’ll also be only the third second baseman to win the honor in the past 44 years, joining Steve Sax (1982) and Jonathan India (2021).