Alec

Burleson

Wetherholt has an opportunity to break camp on St. Louis’ season-opening roster with a strong performance in Grapefruit League play and possesses the advanced hit tool and emerging power skillset to be a colossal fantasy difference-maker at a relatively weak second base position group. The 23-year-old top prospect batted .306/.421/.510 with 17 homers and 23 steals in 109 games in the upper minors last season and could split time between third base and the keystone with defensive wizard Masyn Winn occupying shortstop. It feels like only a matter of time before he ascends to the top of manager Oli Marmol’s lineup card as a top-of-the-order spark plug. The other interesting name to watch is power/speed combo threat Joshua Baez, who broke out with a 16-homer, 34-steal campaign at Double-A Springfield last year. Here’s the full lineup: Winn (SS), Alec Burleson (1B), Nolan Gorman (3B), Pedro Páges (C), Wetherholt (2B), José Fermín (LF), Nathan Church (CF), Baez (RF) and Blaze Jordan (DH).

Burleson was arbitration eligible for the first time after hitting .290/.343/.459 with 18 homers in 546 plate appearances last season. He’s expected to be the Cardinals’ starting first baseman with the Willson Contreras trade opening up that spot, and while his power ceiling doesn’t seem all that high, he should continue to hit for a nice average while striking out less than 15 percent of the time.

Burleson figures to move to the cold corner full-time next season after the Cardinals shipped Willson Contreras to the Red Sox earlier this week. The 27-year-old hit .279/.328/.439 with 39 homers, 147 RBI and 14 steals in 291 games over the past two seasons. He’s a decent bet to reach the 20-homer plateau with double-digit steals and a respectable batting average. That makes him a borderline mixed-league starter at first base, especially in deeper formats, heading into drafts next spring.

Contreras has two years and $36.5 million remaining on the five-year, $85 million contract he signed ahead of the 2023 season. That contract also has a club option for $17.5 million in 2028, so he is under contract for a reasonable amount of money for the next three years, which should be appealing to many teams. The 33-year-old hit .257/.344/.447 with 20 home runs, a career-high 70 runs, and a career-high 80 RBI in his first season as a first baseman. While the Cardinals are not eager to trade Contreras, as Woo noted, trading him “would open up first base full-time for Alec Burleson and could alleviate some payroll concerns.” This is a situation to monitor for the rebuilding Cardinals.

The American League winners will be announced on Friday night. Here is the complete list of winners for the senior circuit: Hunter Goodman (C), Pete Alonso (1B), Ketel Marte (2B), Manny Machado (3B), Geraldo Perdomo (SS), Juan Soto (OF), Corbin Carroll (OF), Kyle Tucker (OF), Ohtani (DH) and Alec Burleson (UTIL). Ohtani has claimed the award in back-to-back seasons since joining the Dodgers and four times overall in his career. Soto takes home the honor in his Mets debut, giving him six in eight seasons. At this rate, he might need an entire room just to display them all by the time his 15-year megadeal is through. Alonso, Perdomo, Goodman, Carroll and Burleson are all first-time winners.

Burleson smacked a two-out single off of Jacob Misiorowski in the third inning, but never advanced past first base. He then led off the fifth with another knock off of Rob Zastryzny and scored on a throwing error by Brewers’ second baseman Brice Turang. He was also hit by a pitch in the sixth inning and doubled with two outs in the eighth. With his three-hit attack, the 26-year-old is now slashing .289/.342/.466 with 18 homers, 66 RBI and five stolen bases on the season.

He was also caught stealing if you’re looking for a negative for some reason. Burleson hit his 18th homer of the season off Spencer Strider to get the Cardinals on the board. His double with his 24th, and he’s now driven in 66 runs in what has been a very solid season for the 26-year-old in 2025. If only a few other St. Louis hitters could say the same.

With Willson Contreras (shoulder) going on the IL, Burleson figures to be the starting first baseman for the Cardinals for the rest of the season. That should allow Ivan Herrera to continue to DH regularly with Pedro Pages and Jimmy Crooks splitting time at catcher. Crooks is starting on Wednesday and batting seventh.

Contreras will receive some additional time off to rest and recover this week after being diagnosed with a mild right biceps strain, according to Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol. The 33-year-old first baseman has been beat up physically the last few days as a result of being hit by a pitch on multiple occasions since returning from suspension. He figures to return at some point later this week. It’ll be Alec Burleson filling in at the cold corner in his absence.

Burleson had a hand in all of the Cardinals’ run scoring on a night where they only scored two runs. He hit an RBI triple in the sixth inning and came around to score on an RBI single by Lars Nootbaar. Burleson is hitting .283 with a .789 OPS and 63 RBI this year.