THE REDBIRD REVIEW
Let’s go to the JJ Wetherholt File!
– Kiley McDaniel has the Cardinals’ top prospect at No. 14 on ESPN’s updated list of the Top 100 MLB prospects. That ranking differs from what we’ve seen from Keith Law of The Athletic, who has Wetherholt at No. 3, Baseball America, which has Wetherholt at No. 5. And MLB Pipeline, which lists Wetherholt at No. 6.
– Some good news for Wetherholt fans: The sharp eyes at Baseball America noticed some changes in JJ’s hitting approach that points to increased power.
– This report from Baseball America’s Geoff Pontes: “Wetherholt has shown his typical bat-to-ball skills and advanced approach this season … What’s new is his ability to hit the ball hard in the air for home run power in games. While Wetherholt’s 90th percentile exit velocity is on the lower end of the 55-grade bucket, his 48% hard-hit rate is squarely in plus territory. His pullside power is still coming along and will be a limiting factor for Wetherholt’s game power.
“Despite any nits you can pick, Wetherholt’s overall hitting data is phenomenal showing a well rounded hitter and a tough out.”
– Pontes informs us that Wetherholt’s contact rates have gone down – simply because of the swing adjustment made to launch more shots into the air on his pull side. This is no surprise. Months ago the astute Keith Law observed that Wetherholt would expand his offensive game and add more power to the mix … and that seems to be happening. This doesn’t mean JJ will morph into an undisciplined grip-and-rip hitter who is obsessed with home runs.
– After a brief cold spell Wetherholt went on another hitting spree; in a five-game stretch he batted .364, smoked three home runs and two doubles, drew three walks, scored six runs, drove home four runs, finessed a .440 onbase percentage, and slugged .864.
BIRD BYTES
1. It’s good to see Thomas Saggese crank up some offense. He was large in Tuesday’s 7-4 win over the Marlings with three hits, two runs scored, and an RBI on a sac fly. It was the infielder’s 11th consecutive start, and he went 14 for 42 (.333) in the 11 games. There wasn’t much “runway” for Saggese in 2025, but once he got a chance, his offense kicked in. Going into Wednesday’s game at Miami, Saggese was 15 for 50 (.300) in August. He hasn’t shown much power, but there’s life in his bat.
2. I enjoy watching Michael McGreevy pitch and compete. He isn’t going to wow anybody with strikeout nastiness, but some dudes just know how to pitch, and McGreevy has a lot of bulldog on him. He never gets rattled, and usually regroups quickly after going through some turbulence. McGreevy had a solid start in Tuesday’s win at Miami. In his last four starts the right-hander has averaged 6.0 innings per assignment and pitched to a 3.75 ERA and 3.51 FIP.
3. I like this McGreevy stat: McGreevy he faced 98 hitters in his last four starts yielded only two walks and two homers. He induced a 51 percent ground-ball rate from opponents.
4. I also like this McGreevy stat: the Cardinals are 6-3 in his nine starts this season, and they are 9-3 in his 12 starts over the last two seasons.
5. The Cardinals were 5-15 in Erick Fedde’s 20 starts this season … and 8-22 in his 30 starts over the last two seasons.
6. Heck, the Cardinals would probably be a lot closer in the wild-card standings had they subbed McGreevy into the rotation for Fedde much earlier in the season.
7. Fedde’s ERA in his first four starts with Atlanta: 7.11.
8. Good stat from Rob Rains, the dean of St. Louis baseball writers, in his Tuesday game report at STLsportspage.com … writing about the 7-4 win, Rains noted this: “It was only the sixth time the Cardinals have won a game without hitting a home run since June 7, going 6-22 in their last 28 games when they failed to hit at least one home run.”
9. Nolan Gorman is taking a lot of walks, and that’s a great sign of his progress. In his previous 51 games heading into Wednesday, Gorman had an outstanding 13 percent walk rate, and his onbase percentage was .346 over that time. And with the walks – a sign of enhanced plate discipline – the Gorman slugging percentage has increased. Gorman walked twice and scored a run in Tuesday’s win. And that extended his walk streak to six consecutive games.
10. Gorman II: In his last 10 games before Wednesday, the third baseman had walked 10 times, generated a .410 onbase percentage, and belted out a .448 slug with two home runs, five RBIs and five runs scored.
11. Gorman III: It’s good to see a few folks in the STL sports-media industrial complex finally catch up to the trend and recognize Gorman’s improvement. It took a while, and I’m not sure why so many media people completely whiffed on tracking this rather important development. Update: over his last 51 games, going back to May 26, Gorman ranks 1st or 2nd among Cardinals in slugging percentage, OPS, onbase percentage, wOBA, home runs, walk rate, and wRC+.
12. Pardon me for mentioning this again. I apologize for interrupting the obsession over his shaky defense when he returned from the IL for his first extended run of third-base starts during his Cardinals career. Yeah, I guess these good people thought he would be Scott Rolen over there. And yes, I’m being a jerk. All kidding aside, Gorman must get better defensively and I think we’re seeing some progress.
13. Gorman IV: The left-handed whammer leads the Cardinals in offense at two different positions this season. His 110 wRC+ as a third baseman is 10 percent above league average offensively and 24 percent higher than Nolan Arenado. And Gorman’s 132 wRC+ as a designated hitter is 32 percent above league average offensively and is slightly above Alec Burleson (127) and considerably higher than Ivan Herrera (110) when they’re used at DH.
14. Bullpen quality? How are the remaining Cardinal relievers doing since the trades that sent Ryan Helsley, Phil Maton and Steven Matz off to new homes? The answer: all things considered, not bad. At least not so far. I looked up the splits at FanGraphs that isolate stats that are derived from the players that are currently on the active 26-man roster. So the revised STL bullpen has a 3.54 ERA since the trades went down, and that ranks 12th overall and 7th in the NL. The strikeout rate (22.6%) is still thin but a little better. This set of relievers keeps the ball in the yard, collectively giving up 0.87 home runs per nine innings. Here’s the bottom line: using adjusted ERA, which accounts for season trends and ballpark effects, the current bullpen roster has performed 14 percent better than the league average.
15. Ryan Helsley had an awfully rough time in his first two-plus weeks with the Mets. Here are his numbers going into Wednesday: eight appearances, 6 and ⅓ innings, nine hits, four walks, four doubles, a homer, and nine strikeouts. Opposing batters have clobbered Helsley for a .310 average, .382 OBP and .552 slug. Helsley’s strikeout rate as a Met (26.5%) is fine. But his walk rate (11.8%) is not.
16. Maton and Matz: In his first 8 and ⅓ innings coming out of the Texas bullpen, Maton was pummeled for two homers and a 6.48 ERA. His control has been off, as evidenced by four walks and two hit batters.
Matz is off to a fantastic start with Boston; through Tuesday he had a 1.17 ERA in seven appearances and 7 and ⅔ innings. Only five of 28 batters have reached base against Matz, and he’s limited opponents to an .080 batting average and 0.52 WHIP.
That’s all for now!
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him weekdays on the “Gashouse Gang” or “Redbird Rush Hour” on KMOX, and Bernie does a weekly “Seeing Red” podcast on the Cardinals with his longtime pal Will Leitch. Bernie joins Katie Woo on the “Cardinal Territory” video-podcast at least once per week, and you can catch a weekly “reunion” show here with Bernie and Randy Karraker every Friday morning at 10:30 am.