Listen up here, boys and six girl readers, this is your first foray into 2026 fantasy baseball, so you might want to sit yourself down before you catch a cold. In 2026, Imma be talking like a southern star of yesteryear so you best get used to it, ya hear? You betta, ya heard? Meh, I’m over that. Back to my Big City Sarcasm, I guess. BCS if you watch college football. Go Longcats! I don’t know what or who the Longcats are, but it sounds smart. Around here, we sound smart! Deal with it!
So, starting about dozen years ago, I’d highlight the top rookie in all of baseball coming into the year and it was super obvious for about a decade. From Mike Trout through Corbin Carroll, I nailed each one, but everyone sorta did, if I’m being humble. Last year, I said, “There’s no top rookie for fantasy baseball, if I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, and, let’s hope I did, because I’ve already drank the tea so I can’t re-read them.” And that’s me quoting me! I went over a bunch of rookies last year, but, as predicted, there was no consensus rookie for redraft leagues. The most votes from prospect people who I asked went to two guys; Jasson Dominguez and Kristian Campbell. Everyone also agreed that if he was called up early enough, Roman Anthony would be a force. So, long story short, last year’s rookies were tough to figure. So, how does this relate to this year? It looks like there’s a no clearcut rookie once again. If Justin Crawford or Jesus Made were definitely breaking camp, they’d shoot up to 1A and 1B, but they’re flyers as of now. If in March that changes, I’ll talk about it in March. So, rather than say one guy is the number one rookie, I will cover a bunch of rookies in the upcoming weeks for redraft leagues. That’s right! Welcome to our 2026 fantasy baseball rookie outlook series where I will cover all the 2026 rookies who will be worthwhile for 2026 fantasy baseball redraft leagues. I am not the dynasty guy. That is Itch. I am not the keeper guy, that’s Jakkers. I’m just your redraft guy. So, even though there is no top prospect right now, I had to cover someone first. Guess who that is? For those with Title Blindness: J.J. Wetherholt is your top rookie for 2026 fantasy baseball who may or may not be your top rookies for 2026 fantasy baseball, but he’s the first guy I’m going over and he looks solid. And for those who like a segue with their hedges: So, what can we expect from J.J. Wetherholt for 2026 fantasy baseball?
A big part of fantasy baseball value for hitters is at-bats (or innings for pitchers). We saw this just now as I recapped the 2025 fantasy baseball rankings. If a guy gets 500 ABs or 150+ IP, it’s a long way to providing redraft value. I know, it’s not exciting as you might want to hear. “He’s gonna go 30/30!” is a lot more exciting. I get that. The true test of a great rookie is at-bats (or innings) and greatness. That’s where the rubber and road meet. J.J. Wetherholt’s about as close as it comes to where those two intersect. Going against him? Cards develop one hitter every twenty years, and they just figured out Ivan Herrera. Maybe they can cycle through Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, well, everyone else, once more than come back to Wetherholt real fast to get the next “bad twenty prospects” out of their system real fast. Speaking of Herrera, he moves back behind home plate, opens the DH spot for Brendan Donovan and welcome to the bigs, J.J. Wetherholt! That’s how he gets at-bats.
So, about J.J. Wetherholt’s sex appeal? Oh, it’s there too. He was 4th on the Itch’s top 50 fantasy baseball prospects update late September, and he was 6th overall in the last preseason, where Cam Smith, Nick Kurtz and Roki Sasaki were in front of him and graduated. So, why was he ranked so high? Itch said after J.J. was drafted, “The seventh overall pick out of West Virginia, Wetherholt was in the running to be the number one pick but lost time to a hamstring injury and may have slipped a little due to the relative weakness of the Big 12 Conference. A left-handed hitter at 5′ 10″ 190 lbs., he features double-plus contact skills along with plus power and speed. Wish my fist was double-plus contact to Grey’s skull.” What on earth? Wetherholt’s done zippo to ice that hype. Last year, he went 17/23/.306 with a 14.5 BB% and 14.7 K% in 408 at-bats in the minors, ending his stay in Triple-A. Those plate discipline numbers mean he still has not reached his level. Enough talk, let’s see some action:
J.J. Wetherholt drove this outer third changeup to dead center for a double. He’s been putting on a backspin show since the AAA call up
99.3 EV
410 Ft pic.twitter.com/krilaqEerR— P F (@PeytonStats) August 17, 2025
I like that clip because it shows how easy the power is. He basically one-arms it out to dead center. Here’s another:
WE HAVE J.J WETHERHOLT’S FIRST HOME RUN IN THE CARDINALS ORGANIZATION!!!
100.7 MPH OFF OF THE BAT
389 FT SHOT!! pic.twitter.com/Q5pr4LuvDu— Kyle Reis, 58% Neanderthal (@kyler416) August 7, 2024
They call that power to all fields. The speed is easy, though less so to find a clip of, so you’ll have to take my word for it. To recap, he pairs elite contact, elite plate discipline, elite power, elite speed, Elite modeling agency if he gets his cheekbones working. It’s all here. There’s only one thing standing in his way–Okay, two. Anecdotally, the Cardinals disappoint with prospects so many times my scars still have not healed from Jordan Walker. Let’s pretend that’s nonsense. The other issue, and the real problem, playing time.
Winn is not moving off shortstop, so that means Herrera has to catch, and they have to move Brendan Donovan off 2nd to DH. Doesn’t sound like a huge hurdle, but it’s not an insignificant hurdle to move a vet off the field. Donovan only DH’d twice last year. Gonna be conservative here with playing time estimates — this could go up a full 100-plus ABs. For 2026 fantasy baseball, I’ll give J.J. Wetherholt projections of 44/12/41/.272/15 in 377 ABs with a chance for more, and a chance to be the top rookie for 2026 fantasy baseball because of his combination of speed and power.
If Konnor Griffin were definitely breaking camp would be move Crawford and Made to 1C?