Minor League Player Spotlight: Cards' Wetherholt

JJ Wetherholt turned 22 on Tuesday and celebrated by mashing a home run in his first taste of postseason ball since turning pro. It was the first dinger that the No. 7 overall pick in this year's Draft has ever hit on his birthday, and it set the table for Single-A Palm Beach's 8-3 victory in game 1 of its best-of-3 semifinals series. The performance also put an exclamation point on arguably the top Cardinals prospect's best week since joining the organization.

Wetherholt earned Florida State League Player of the Week honors after going 14-for-28 (.500) -- hitting safely in all six contests while recording five multihit games and recording nine RBIs -- from Sept. 2-9 for the Palm Beach Cardinals. He also notched a trio of three-knock efforts over this span.

"I know I’ve gotten a hit on my birthday before, but I don’t think I've ever homered so, I mean, yeah, it’s a good day," Wetherholt told Kevin Millar, Siera Santos and Ryan Dempster on MLB Network's Intentional Talk. "But just being around guys like that [on Palm Beach], who just want to win so bad -- especially coming from a college environment -- is super welcoming to me because that’s what I want to do, I want to win. So, I’m just looking forward to keeping it going."

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MLB's No. 16 overall prospect served as the catalyst for Palm Beach's five-game win streak to end the regular season as he crushed his second career homer, laced three doubles, scored eight runs and stole a base while slashing .500/.533/.714 over the final week.

"It’s been a super cool learning experience," he told MLB Network. "I think right off the gates I started hitting pretty well and then just kinda cooled down a little bit. I had some bad luck go my way and then was able to catch fire last week and just had a really good week. We’re on a really good roll right now, we have a really good team."

The West Virginia product made his pro debut in the Florida State League on July 30. After collecting 13 hits through his first 14 games -- including a career-best four-hit effort on Aug. 16 -- Wetherholt began to skid a bit before finding his rhythm again at the plate last week. Over 29 regular season games at Single-A this season, the 5-foot-10, 190 pound infielder posted a .295/.405/.400 slash line with seven extra-base hits, 20 RBIs, 18 runs, 16 walks and stole a pair of bases without getting caught.

With his focus now solely on winning a Single-A title, Wetherholt will make himself at home in Palm Beach as he revealed he will be spending the majority of his offseason in Florida at the club's training complex. Still, the lefty-swinger admitted that he plans to take his family to St. Louis to take in a big league game there before the Cardinals wrap up their year.

"I’m gonna try to get down to St. Louis once we’re done here in Palm Beach," Wetherholt said. "And then I think hopefully go to a game and get the St. Louis experience. Hopefully get my family down there so that we can all get to be in St. Louis. I don’t think anyone from my family has been there before and I’ve heard a ton of great things about the city but also especially the ballpark."

A park he hopes to call home in the not-so-distant future.

"I’m looking forward to just climbing through the system," he said. "I know High-A is in Peoria and then Double-A is in Springfield, so I’m just excited to keep going and keep moving up."