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The promotion for Wetherholt, 22, comes after he batted .300 with an .891 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) across 62 games for Class AA Springfield (Missouri), and less than a year after the Cardinals selected him in the first round of the 2024 draft.

In his first full season in the minor leagues after skipping Class High-A, Wetherholt owns a .425 on-base percentage and is slugging .466. He has 14 doubles, seven homers and more walks (44) than strikeouts (40). His strong performance catapulted him to No. 14 on Baseball America’s latest top 100 prospects list after beginning the year ranked No. 25. It also moved him closer to the major leagues.

Before he heads to Atlanta to represent the Cardinals in the All-Star Futures Game on Saturday, Wetherholt is expected to report to Memphis before the Triple-A Redbirds open a homestand Tuesday at AutoZone Park.

After helping Class Low-A Palm Beach win the Florida State League title last season following his leap to professional baseball, Wetherholt’s production while playing shortstop, his primary position, and second base helped Springfield clinch a Texas League Playoff spot with a 43-26 record in the first half of the MiLB season.

Wetherholt, a left-handed hitter, posted a .356/.500/.521 slash line through 21 games in June. The strong month highlighted an offensive jolt Wetherholt found after missing over a week in April because of an illness.

Over his last 50 games in Class AA, Wetherholt batted .285, reached base at a .419 clip and slugged .453. His most recent showing at the level was a two-homer, three-RBI performance on Sunday that helped Springfield to a 7-3 win over Northwest Arkansas.

While displaying the 65-grade hit tool given to him by Baseball America, Wetherholt has held a .957 fielding percentage in 309 innings at shortstop and had not committed an error in 140 innings at second base. Though shortstop remains the 22-year-old’s primary position since his professional debut last summer, the Cardinals have mapped out playing time for him at second base as a way to allow him to develop his range as a middle infielder.

Wetherholt began his first full season in professional baseball as a non-roster invitee to his first big league camp this past spring training, where he had a chance to display his personality and promise to the Cardinals’ big league coaching staff.

He received a promotion to Class AA and a leap over Class High-A because the Cardinals wanted to put Wetherholt, a West Virginia University product, in a Texas League environment that could challenge him. He responded to that opportunity by leading his league in on-base percentage and OPS at the time of his promotion. At the start of Monday, Wetherholt’s 1.10 walk-to-strikeout ratio and .425 on-base percentage ranked within the top 15 of minor leaguers with 250 or more plate appearances.

Among hitters in the Cardinals’ system with the same minimum amount of plate appearances, the lefty is third in batting average, second in on-base percentage, third in OPS and second in weighted runs created-plus (wRC+) with 150. (A wRC+ of 100 is considered league-average.)

For his minor league career, which began with a .221 average in his first 23 games in Class Low-A, Wetherholt is batting .299 and owns a .864 OPS in 91 games.

A debut Tuesday for Memphis would come less than a full year after Wetherholt’s name was called as the seventh overall pick in the 2024 draft.