The St. Louis Cardinals added 19 players to the organization in the 2024 MLB Draft over the past three days. That included the highest draft pick the team has had since 1998, at the seventh overall position. Here are a few takeaways from the Cardinals’ 2024 draft.
St. Louis Cardinals 2024 Draft Takeaways
Potential Steal with the No. 7 Pick
The Cardinals selected shortstop JJ Wetherholt out of the University of West Virginia with their first pick. Wetherholt was MLB.com’s No. 4 prospect going into the draft. Wetherholt was in the mix for the first overall pick to the Cleveland Guardians. Ultimately, the Guardians ended up selecting infielder Travis Bazzana out of Oregon State.
In three years with the Mountaineers, Wetherholt slashed .370/.468/.625/1.093 with 29 home runs, 49 doubles, 129 RBI, 148 runs, and a 1:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. In 2023, Wetherhold won the D1 batting title and Big 12 Player of the Year.
“JJ is ready to begin playing and we’re ready to start his onboarding process,” said Cardinals Assistant General Manager and Director of Scouting Randy Flores in a statement. “We like the steps he’s taken to meet the rigors of the game. He takes what’s given to him. He (plays) up the middle, is athletic, has good hands, speed, and makes good contact. JJ knows the zone and has a left-handed swing that does damage. He doesn’t chase and has the ability to impact the ball with a wood bat and can hit it out opposite and to the big part of the field.”
Wetherholt is considered one of the best-hitting prospects of this year’s draft class. He had just a 10 percent miss rate in 2023 at West Virginia.
“Wetherholt might be the best pure hitter in the class and there are some area scouts who think he’s the best amateur bat they’ve ever seen. The left-handed hitter drives the ball to all fields with authority with excellent pitch recognition and elite bat-to-ball skills,” the MLB scouting report on Wetherholt reads.
JJ Wetherholt is going to be a problem. #ForTheLou pic.twitter.com/np5nLGQhSm
— GMGirsch (@GMGirsch) July 15, 2024
Continued Trend of College Players
Another takeaway from the Cardinals’ draft haul this year is their continuing to lean toward college players. Of the team’s 19 draft picks, they only selected one player out of high school. It’s the second year in a row the Cardinals have selected only one high school player. They didn’t select a prep player until their second-to-last pick with Brendon Larsen.
“We were very cognizant over the first couple of months of the [college] season to not race and chase who we might think would be the final pick at No. 7. Instead, we wanted to go through the same process and do it with intentionality,” Flores told MLB.com ahead of the draft.
The Cardinals have changed their draft strategy to picking college players almost exclusively in the early rounds over the past several years. They haven’t drafted a prep player in the first round since 2020 with Jordan Walker. Seven of the 12 Cardinals’ first-round draft picks from 2013 to 2020 were high school players.
Exciting Arms
Nine of the 19 selections for the Cardinals were pitchers. The Cardinals’ second draft pick didn’t come until round three. That was RHP Brian Holliday out of Oklahoma State University. Holliday has an old-fashioned high leg kick and 12-6 curveball. He was a career 24-4 with a 2.63 ERA across 253 2/3 innings pitched. He recorded 343 strikeouts in 55 games in three collegiate seasons with three different teams.
Holliday’s collegiate highlight was when he pitched a two-hit complete game vs. Florida in the 2024 NCAA Regional on June 1. He struck out 10 and tossed 131 pitches in a 7-1 Cowboys win.
From the University of Oklahoma, the Cardinals drafted LHP Braden Davis in the fifth round. Davis was 9-4 with a 4.30 ERA (92 IP) and in 16 starts with the Sooners. He ranked 17th among Division I pitchers with 17 strikeouts.
Davis’s highlight from college was when he threw a complete game shutout vs. Texas Christian University in the Big 12 tournament this May. He surrendered four hits with no walks and nine strikeouts.
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