The 2025 MLB regular season is winding down quickly, with just three weeks remaining until September's end. For the St. Louis Cardinals, while they are still mathematically alive, it would be an extreme uphill climb if they were to make the playoffs.
Just 21 games are remaining on the schedule, and it could be a good time to see what some of the Cardinals' prospects and young players can do with opportunities at the big league level.
Cardinals predicted to call up JJ Wetherholt
Perhaps the most intriguing storyline of the remaining 21 games the Cardinals have left to be played will be whether or not the team will call up top prospect JJ Wetherholt.
He appears to be ready for the big leagues, and with a transition of power to the new president of baseball operations, Chaim Bloom, looming, the end of September is a great time to call up top prospects to give them a chance to dip their toes in the water of MLB level pitching.
Sports Illustrated's Patrick McAvoy predicts that Wetherholt will be called up with 10 games remaining on the schedule:
"The Cardinals have one of baseball’s best prospects in Wetherholt. He looks like a future star and can’t be stopped by Triple-A pitching. The Cardinals don’t have a lot of space on the big league roster, but a cup of coffee in the big leagues — like Masyn Winn got — only could help."
As McAvoy outlined, the big league roster at this time of year can be tight, but it makes no sense not to even allow Wetherholt to get a handful of at-bats this season if the Cardinals are officially out of the Wild Card race in a couple of weeks.
Wetherholt is hitting .322 in 38 games at the Triple-A level, and has hit nine home runs. He's slugging .597 with 22 total extra-base hits in those 38 games. If not now, then when? He's still really young at 22 years old, but it's clear he's the future star of St. Louis, and why wouldn't you give the fans a taste of what he could be in the coming years?
Stories like this in September are common, but especially for teams like the Cardinals that are almost all but surely going to miss the playoffs.