Cardinals Sign First-Round Pick JJ Wetherholt

The Cardinals have signed JJ Wetherholt to a $6.9MM bonus, according to Baseball America’s Carlos Collazo (X link).  Wetherholt’s first pro deal is slightly above the $6,823,700 slot value assigned to the seventh overall pick.

Based on pre-draft rankings, St. Louis might’ve gotten a bit of a steal in nabbing Wetherholt with the seventh pick, as the West Virginia shortstop was a consensus top-four selection.  Fangraphs had Wetherholt as the top prospect in the entire draft class, while Baseball America, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and The Athletic’s Keith Law had him third in their rankings, and MLB Pipeline put Wetherholt fourth.  There was some speculation prior to draft night that the Guardians could take Wetherholt with the first overall pick, but when Cleveland opted for Travis Bazzana, Wetherholt then slid all the way to the Cardinals at seventh overall.