WVU Superstar JJ Wetherholt Awarded Unanimous Honor

JJ Wetherholt. If you haven’t already, get used to hearing the name.

The Mountaineers still won’t play their first game of the season for more than three weeks, but the WVU baseball superstar second baseman is already raking in awards. The Big 12 announced on Wednesday, that Wetherholt received recognition as the conference’s Preseason Player of the Year, and that he’d received the honor via unanimous selection by all 13 baseball coaches in the conference.

Your 𝙐𝙣𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙨 Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year, @jj_wetherholt 👏

📰https://t.co/qKA1RFkuzM#HailWV pic.twitter.com/L00KsAFlie

— WVU Baseball (@WVUBaseball) January 24, 2024

Wetherholt was the Big 12 Player of the Year in 2023 and a First-Team All American based on the strength of his .449 batting average, which led the nation, also adding 16 home runs, 24 doubles, 67 runs, 60 RBI and 36 stolen bases as he led the Mountaineers to their best regular season in program history. The junior has an excellent chance to win the award again in 2024, which looks to be his last season in Morgantown—he’s already receiving buzz to be the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s MLB Entry Draft.

JJ Wetherholt Projected To Go No. 1 Overall in 2024 MLB Draft

Other preseason honors bestowed by the conference on Wednesday included the All-Big 12 Baseball Team, of which Wetherholt was another unanimous selection at second base… the only Mountaineer to make the final cut.

The conference hasn’t released their preseason poll yet, and it’ll be interesting to see where the Mountaineers land in the expanded field, which will jump to 13 teams this season after featuring just nine in 2023. Last season, pundits picked WVU to finish sixth, which ended up a controversial prediction as they spent time in the national top ten and earned a share of the regular season Big 12 title.

With JJ Wetherholt and head coach Randy Mazey facing their final seasons, the Mountaineers have even more to prove this year.