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Among the handful of things he learned about measuring reaction time and developing decision-making reflexes from a cutting-edge device strapped to his wrist, Cardinals top prospect JJ Wetherholt came to appreciate the rejuvenating power of a cold, cold shower.

There was one issue when he started his professional career in Florida with its sunny climate, warmed pipes and shower temps.

“It just wasn’t cold,� he said. “It was pointless.�

So maybe it’s a workout that does it, an early stretch or a caffeine drink or better sleep or, like some of his college peers, it’s music that reboots his reaction time. Add this to the growing list of things he plans to continually learn during spring training, and he’s working with a tech company, Pison, to do so.

Alongside a few dozen fellow Cardinals already at the team’s complex in Jupiter, Florida, Wetherholt is in his second week of warming up for his first big league spring training. The seventh overall pick from this past July’s draft, Wetherholt bounded out of West Virginia and into the lineup for the Cardinals’ Low-A affiliate in time to help lead the Palm Beach Cardinals to a Florida State League championship. The 22-year-old shortstop hit .295 with an .805 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) in his first 105 at-bats as a pro and earned a non-roster invite to Cardinals spring training.

Along with left-handed starter Quinn Mathews, Wetherholt is positioned to be at the head of the Cardinals’ next class of talents, the post-�reset� arrivals. Both leading prospects will get their first glimpse of big league camp this month — and the big leaguers will get a look at them.

“Just because you go to big league spring training doesn’t really mean that you’re going to get to that level right away or that you’re going to advance,� Wetherholt told the Post-Dispatch this past week from Jupiter. “It’s a learning process. I’m excited to be surrounded, to be around a bunch of big leaguers ... (and) be prepared for any chance that I could get.�

As part of a group of early campers who began workouts this past week at the Roger Dean Stadium campus, Wetherholt started listing all the things they’d been doing — “lifting, running, fielding, hitting� — before settling with “everything.�

“Easier transition,� he said of going from offseason to spring training.

Brand ambassador

Before taking his first day in big league camp or first at-bat above Class A, Wetherholt already has been selected by a technology company to be featured in its advertising, social media, promotions and development. Eager to show its potential, Pison chose a player with potential as a “brand ambassador.�

Wetherholt was introduced to Pison’s tech and smart wristband in college, and it was there he used the tech, its smart wristband and data collected through response tests to better grasp and maintain his reaction time. The more he learned, the more curious he became, Wetherholt said.

He and teammates would keep track of who was scoring higher on tests that use stimuli and response to measure reaction time and decision responses.

“I won, by the way,� Wetherholt grinned.

Founded in 2016 to advance and harness technology to use in measurement devices and to assist people with degenerative brain illnesses, Boston-area biotech company Pison developed tech that tracks electrical signals the brain sends to the hand, for example, using a smartwatch-like device. Like similar tech that tracks movement, steps, pulse, sleep habits and much more, the leap to sports performance was obvious and happened in the past two years.

“I found it fascinating that reaction time (and) decision making and focus were able to be measured on the body and give players the awareness that, hey, listen I might not be up to my cognitive ability that particular day, (so) how can I find some sort of intervention or mitigation to get my reaction time to be able to go and face a Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning throwing 95 mph cutters,� said Marc Deschenes, a former pitcher in the Boston and Cleveland organizations who is now Pison’s vice president of sport operations.

“Or, how can I have my brain at its performance to optimize decision making to understand if I should swing at a fastball in the zone or maybe check-swing or take on a breaking ball in the dirt?�

When first introduced to the technology, Wetherholt took several reaction-time tests to establish a baseline. The 20-second test involves looking at the wristband as it flashes a white light six times. The user opens their hand each time they see the light, and the response is measured in milliseconds. Elite athletes are around 120 milliseconds, and Wetherholt is consistently around 117 milliseconds, Deschenes said. A second test is called an agility test, or “go, no go,� and it measures decision making within the framework of the reaction test.

The band flashes either a white light or an orange/yellow light, and the user is tasked with opening their hand on white and doing nothing for the other colors. For an athlete with a slower reaction score (in milliseconds!), swifter decisions can close that gap.

Scores are based on speed and accuracy.

Wetherholt said he has to fight anticipating the light and being wrong.

Just like, say, a pitch.

“It’s kind of like swinging at a fastball and taking a slider or a change-up,� Wetherholt said. “It’s hard because you’re trying to anticipate seeing the light flash and going because you want to be as quick as possible. But if you anticipate too much and you think it’s going to be a white light and it’s an orange light, yellow light and you can’t go, you might jump too early. Just swung at a slider in the dirt. So it kind of feels like baseball training a little bit. ...

“The cognitive side, I feel, is an untapped area.�

A third test measures focus over a long period of time.

The tests can be done often, and Wetherholt said he’ll do a few of them several times a week to either check his reaction time against his baseline or sharpen his decision making.

“It’s a tool you use outside to be more prepared in the box and in the field,� he said.

And over time, it helps identify what factors might place a drag on reaction time.

“It helps the athlete identify different things that they may do throughout the day, week or month they can see that, ‘Alright, I’ve done this and it affects my reaction time (and) I’m worse than my baseline,’� said Peter Prodanov, a former pro ballplayer who is Pison’s regional director working directly with Wetherholt and also college programs. “‘I have a cognitive deficit, so therefore I’ll have a physical deficit. I don’t want to do those things anymore because I’m a professional baseball player and I’ve got to be at the top of my game both cognitively and physically.’ It’s a new thing that athletes don’t have currently. They have a lot going on and a lot of ways to track optimal performance. But they don’t have this yet.�

Pison has provided tech and worked with college programs like West Virginia, Penn State and Lansing (Michigan) Community College and benefited from the data collected to better understand reaction time maintenance and decision-making dexterity. Deschenes referred to both Wetherholt and the Lansing program as “power users� for the insight their data provides.

Cue the cold, cold shower.

Individual results

By looking at what activities allow players to return closer to their baseline reaction time, Pison found that “interventions and mitigations� varied for each individual. Some were boosted by caffeine drinks or cold tubs; some responded well to yoga. Music has been identified as a great help for players who stray from their baseline and then snap back to it, the Pison executives said.

Wetherholt learned that he responds well to a cold shower — and also working out, lifting or stretching early.

“I take a little bit longer to prep than some other guys, (so) for me I have got to get my body moving, start earlier and find ways to really get that heart rate up so I can be perfectly ready for first pitch,� Wetherholt said. “It’s just the balance of knowing it’s a tool. It’s not going to make you hit a home run that day. You still have to go and have an approach, be locked in in that at-bat and be ready to go.�

This past month, Pison introduced its Baseball Pro tool to help with cognitive training and measurements. The price point for an individual is $359 annually, and teams at all levels, including the majors, have shown interest.

One of the measurements on the device is a standardized “pop� time — the number of seconds it takes a catcher to receive a pitch (mitt pop) and deliver a throw to an infielder (glove pop). In Pison’s drill, the catcher is given a stimuli — an arrow for which base to throw — and the catcher’s device measures the reaction while the wristband worn on the glove hand by an infielder measures the throws arrival.

Such data can be used for training and scouting.

On Pison’s web page describing its Baseball Pro device, Wetherholt is featured right beside the description: “In baseball, milliseconds matter.�

In spring training, so do minutes.

There are the minutes he’ll spend with prospect peers and major leaguers in a clubhouse he knows from Class A, from the route to the weight room to the temperature of the shower water. There are the minutes he’ll spend on the field.

Slowed by a hamstring injury in his junior year at West Virginia, Wetherholt is eager for those minutes this spring spent leading off first base and making a run for more stolen bases, those minutes taking batting practice with big leaguers, those minutes at shortstop. The injury limited his ability to show the work he did defensively a year ago to improve at shortstop, and he wants to “really develop into a true shortstop and not just a guy who is playing shortstop.�

With coaches and the front office watching, he’ll get to measure their reaction.

“I may not be there yet, but I want to show I’m a good player,� Wetherholt said. “It will be an opportunity. I think the biggest part is learning from those guys — just following them, seeing what they do. It’s really kind of like that freshman who shows up on campus who is eager to learn.�