The St. Louis Cardinals and JJ Wetherholt have agreed to an eight-year contract that buys out the rookie second baseman’s first several years of potential free agency, the club announced on Friday.
The Cardinals have not released financial terms but a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Friday that it is worth $112.5 million.
“I want to be in the same spot,” Wetherholt said. “That’s just how I am. I’m from a small town, went to college an hour outside of that, wanted to stay there as long as possible. It’s the same here. When I got drafted, I knew that I wanted to be here for as long as possible, and this is a step in that direction, so it means a lot.
The contract is the largest the Cardinals have given a player prior to an arbitration hearing, topping the seven-year, $100 million contract given to Albert Pujols ahead of the 2004 season.
“It’s just great to have the backing from our staff and front office,” Wetherholt said. “This obviously shows that they believe, so that’s great there. But I’ll just continue to go about my work that I do every day, and that’s where the confidence mainly comes from is that preparation and the work that I do behind the scenes.”
The Cardinals picked Wetherholt, 23, seventh overall out of West Virginia two years ago in the first-year player draft, and he rocketed through their farm system. He made his major league debut on opening day and was hitting .267 with 13 homers and 36 RBIs and nine stolen bases going into Friday night’s game against the Atlanta Braves.
Advanced metrics also have graded Wetherholt as one of the best defensive second basemen in baseball this season.
He is earning the major league minimum $780,000 this year.
Wetherholt’s emergence in the middle of the St. Louis infield is a big reason the club has been one of the surprises of the first half of the season. The Cardinals were 48-44 and three games out of an NL wild-card spot heading into the weekend.
“When you talk about an extension in locking someone in for eight years, you’re betting on the person,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “You’re betting on the consistency of personality. You’re betting on the work ethic that years from today you know exactly what’s going to continue to walk through that door, and that speaks to the way he’s carried himself, the way he treats people and the way he goes about his work.”
His deal is one of the first big signings for St. Louis since significant changes were made to the top of the organizational ladder.
Last September, Chaim Bloom took over as the Cardinals’ president of baseball operations, replacing longtime general manager John Mozeliak. Then last month, Bill DeWitt III took over as chief executive officer, though Bill DeWitt Jr. has continued as chairman and principal owner with a hand in baseball and business matters.
“It’s an important day for our long-term strategy of really building a core,” DeWitt III said. “We’re seeing that out on the field every day, and JJ is one of the keys to that group, and locking him up for this long period of time feels like one down and several more to go at some point. It’s a nice organizational milestone, but it’s really just the beginning.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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