ST. LOUIS -- Though nothing magical happened in his first Major League at-bat, Cardinals' No. 1 prospect JJ Wetherholt didn’t wait long to give the sea of red something to cheer about in his big-league debut during Thursday's 9-7 Opening Day win at Busch Stadium.
After blooping a pop fly to Rays center fielder Cedric Mullins to lead off the game for the Cardinals, Wetherholt launched a solo home run in his second plate appearance to lead off the bottom of the third, sending a Drew Rasmussen offering onto the grassy knoll of the batter’s eye in center field. The ball jumped off his bat at an exit velocity of 101.7 mph and traveled a Statcast-projected 425 feet.
Rasmussen got ahead in the count on the 23-year-old infielder by pounding him away -- a reality that had Wetherholt’s mom, Holly, nervous up in the stands.
A reporter shared with Wetherholt that, during an in-game interview on the television broadcast following the home run, his mom had mentioned how she started to worry about a potential strikeout once she saw him in the hole, 0-2.
“That’s how she gets,” Wetherholt joked. “She asked if I was nervous. I said, ‘No, I was only nervous because I knew you were nervous.’ I’ve just got to try and put on a show for her.”
While mom feared from her seat that her son’s second big-league at-bat would meet an untimely end, Wetherholt was focused on making the necessary adjustment.
“I thought he was going to go away with the heater,” Wetherholt said. “I thought he was probably going to go up-out, just trying to get me to chase. With that in mind, if I saw the pitch start a little bit lower, I was going to go at it and just try to calm myself down, take a lighter swing. And I was able to do so.”
Wetherholt locked in on the pitch in his anticipated zone, driving an outside 94.5 mph four-seam fastball over the wall beyond a spacious Busch Stadium outfield.
Wetherholt became the first Cardinal to connect for his first big league hit and home run in one fell swoop since Paul DeJong (2017). He’s the first Cardinal to accomplish the feat in an MLB debut on Opening Day in 69 years, since Bobby Smith did it against the Cincinnati Redlegs at Crosley Field on April 16, 1957.
As Opening Day approached, it was a foregone conclusion that Wetherholt would be named to the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster after an impressive Spring Training camp. The decision to lead him off to open the 2026 campaign came next, with Oliver Marmol acknowledging Wetherholt’s skill set -- an on-base threat with strong plate discipline -- and weighing it against the reality of the pressures that accompany a big-league debut for any young player.
But the St. Louis manager didn’t come by his choice flippantly.
“I don’t think you just do it with anybody just to be romantic about it,” Marmol said pregame. “I think you have to really weigh whether they can handle it. And I think he can.”
Marmol added to his praise of Wetherholt following the 2024 No. 7 overall Draft pick’s strong debut, which saw the rookie add a key sacrifice fly in the Cardinals’ eight-run sixth-inning rally.
“It’s slowing down enough to understand what the situation is calling for,” Marmol said. “There’s a pace to the way he plays that he competes as if he’s already been here a while. I love that about him, I really do.”
Based on the deafening demands for a curtain call from the sellout crowd at Busch -- a request which was obliged by Wetherholt, after some prodding from teammates -- the fans already seem to love him, too.