At home with JJ Wetherholt

Cardinals prospect JJ Wetherholt walks out the front door of his high school, where he is greeted by two young men who have been waiting for their chance.

"JJ, would you sign these for me?" one of them implores, extending a pair of baseball cards and a black Sharpie.

Wetherholt quickly obliges, shakes their hands and heads for his truck.

"Thanks for coming home," the young man shouts as he smiles and admires his freshly acquired autograph.

"Home" is – and always will be – Mars, Pa., for Wetherholt, the Cardinals top prospect who is seeking to claim his first spot on the big-league roster when Spring Training begins next month.

Mars is an idyllic borough of roughly 1,500 people, located 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, where time stands still for the rising star ballplayer who honed his smooth left-handed swing through steadfast hours of training here. On occasion, he still does. JJ has a his own key to an indoor baseball facility that is open 24 hours.

"It slows me down when I come here," explains Wetherholt, who split a hectic 2025 season between Double-A Springfield, Mo., and Triple-A Memphis, and has spent the bulk of his winter training in Jupiter, Fla. "When we moved here (when JJ was 5), there was just a single gas station. It's just low-key, and that's my roots."

Cardinals Magazine traveled to Mars this offseason to get a closer look at Wetherholt's roots. The infielder, a 2024 first-round draft pick who was the Cardinals minor league player of the year in '25, was back in town as one of the star attractions at a youth baseball clinic put on at the high school (home of the Fightin' Planets!) where he once starred.

And we soon discovered that, if you want a guided tour of Mars, Wetherholt is your perfect wheel man. He hopped in his "new" truck (actually, a 2006 model) and showed us the batting cages and the ballfields where he put in his work, but also the golf course and fishing ponds that dominated his leisure time. He spoke of his first job, his childhood dog, his two favorite restaurants that have now changed ownership.

Through it all, it became clear that Wetherholt feels he belongs to Mars, and that the people here return the sentiment, keenly following his career and proud to claim him as a native son.

"This is where I learned everything," Wetherholt says.

For Cardinals Magazine, there was plenty more to learn and admire about the promising prospect as he showed us around his hometown. Ride along with us on that journey by picking up a copy of our next edition, due out in February, at cardinals.com/magazine.

Photo credits: Ben Munson, Holly Wetherholt