Palm Beach leans on 2024 draftees en route to FSL title

Not even Mother Nature could wash away the Palm Beach Cardinals this season.

The Cardinals' Single-A affiliate claimed the Florida State League championship with a 6-4 victory over the Lakeland Flying Tigers on Wednesday at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. But six batters into the winner-take-all Game 3, the two clubs entered a lengthy rain delay.

"We've had some weather delays being down here in Florida, but never that long," said Palm Beach manager Gary Kendall, who was named the 2024 FSL Manager of the Year earlier in the day. "We gambled and hoped it was just going to be light stuff that we could play through. We knew the boundaries as far as getting it in. … We just said, 'Well, let's go for it.'"

After nearly three hours of stoppage, Palm Beach went for it. Jack Penney homered twice for Lakeland (Tigers), but the Cardinals pulled away in the seventh on back-to-back RBI extra-base hits by 2024 10th-round pick Bryce Madron and seventh overall pick JJ Wetherholt.

Palm Beach rallied to the title after dropping the first game in the best-of-3 series for its third league title and first since 2017. And the Cardinals accomplished that goal after welcoming a new crop of prospects in late July.

Headlined by Wetherholt, a group of 10 newly signed Cardinals made their way to a club that clinched the FSL East first-half title with a 37-29 record. The group kept right on winning in the second half, finishing atop of East again with a 46-18 record.

"It's funny because you don't know what you're going to get out of the Draft," said Kendall, who has managed three seasons for Palm Beach. "These guys hit on all cylinders when they got here, and it was a mixed bag of everybody."

Wetherholt -- who was a "mainstay" for Palm Beach after the Draft -- slashed .295/.405/.400 in 29 regular-season games. MLB’s No. 16 prospect posted the fourth-best OPS on the team while fellow 2024 draftee Ian Petrutz sported a second-best .915 OPS in 28 contests.

On the mound, nondrafted free agent Michael Watson and 13th-rounder Nolan Sparks combined for 18 2/3 innings with just five earned runs and 42 strikeouts. That backed up the hurlers with Palm Beach the entire season -- Chen-Wei Lin (STL No. 16) and Juan Salas, who both posted ERAs under 3.00.

Among the Cardinals prospects contributing early and then moving on were Quinn Mathews (MLB No. 80), who leads all Minor League pitchers with 197 strikeouts, and 2023 first-round outfielder Chase Davis (STL No. 7), now competing for a Texas League championship with Double-A Springfield.

"Even the players that put us in that position, the guys that moved, that got to go to [High-A] Peoria, they were a big part of this," said Kendall, who wrapped up his 20th season as a manager. "From almost start to finish, we were in first place, and 83 wins is quite an accomplishment for these kids."

📩 CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO BEN'S BIZ

Kendall believes his players will be more prepared for postseason baseball in the Major Leagues by achieving a title early in their professional careers. From playing an extended season to not being starstruck by meaningful games, his group lived up to what the organization is "all about."

"What we believe with the Cardinals is playing baseball after the season's over," Kendall said. "We had something to prove, and it was a new batch of players that were new to this. So I don’t think we had any pressure on us."