JUPITER, Fla. -- It took four games for JJ Wetherholt to get his first hit of the spring, but when it finally came, it went a long, long way.
Wetherholt launched a home run against Mets closer Devin Williams to lead off the fourth inning of Friday afternoon's Grapefruit League contest, crushing an 89.1 mph cutter over the center-field wall.
“You obviously know who the guy is, so it's cool,” Wetherholt said of Williams. “I just went up there trying to be aggressive and he gave me a good pitch to it. Hopefully it’s just see-ball, hit-ball in that scenario and I was able to do that.”
The ball came off the bat at 105.4 mph, traveling a projected 422 feet, and brought the Cardinals within a run of New York, but the Mets' offense went on the attack for a 14-3 win.
“Pretty impressive,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “We were talking about it prior to the home run; his misses are what you want them to look like, too, as far as how he's staying through the baseball and not coming around, cutting his swing off short. He’s staying on it. At times he's missing just under, but that one obviously he squared up.”
It marked the first hit, home run and RBI in nine plate appearances this spring for Wetherholt, who started as the Cardinals’ designated hitter Friday but is projected to be St. Louis’ starting second baseman this season.
“It's a good swing; you get happy with a good swing, but I'm not going to think I'm some hero now just because I hit one ball,” Wetherholt said. “It’s like, get back to work and continue to try to get better. I wanted to be aggressive and I was thinking left-center in that swing; it just happened to kind of cut into my barrel. You kind of just put that one to bed with you, wake up and just try to repeat a good swing.”
The seventh pick in the 2024 Draft and No. 5 overall prospect in the game according to MLB Pipeline, Wetherholt is in his second big league camp, having hit only .100 (2-for-20) with one homer in 10 games last spring.
Wetherholt finished the day 1-for-3, leaving him 1-for-6 (.167) this spring. He’s also drawn four walks, giving him a .500 on-base percentage in 10 plate appearances.
“As the spring goes on, that’s when you really try to get into winning at-bats more and more and try to get everything going,” Wetherholt said. “Unfortunately for me, it's kind of been the opposite where I've been getting walked a lot and I've been wanting to swing. You just have to take what they give you, so I’ll just keep trying to have good at-bats.”