Former top prospect in all of baseball, Jordan Walker, is off to a scorching start for the Cardinals.
During their road trip against the Tigers and Nationals, Walker homered 4 times in 5 games, including home runs in 3 straight. He became the first Cardinal ever to have 5 home runs in the team’s first 12 games before turning 24.
Jordan Walker is Finally Tapping into his Raw Power
Walker isn’t clocking any cheap shots either. He currently ranks in the 99th percentile in bat speed, hard-hit%, and xSLG. He sits atop the podium for average exit velocity, at 97.5mph– utterly ridiculous numbers, even in a small sample size.
Walker’s breakout has been predetermined for some time in The Lou. Since his days as a prospect, analysts have clamored about his potential. Baseball America deemed him “Heir Jordan,” even before he was a big leaguer.
Walker’s debut season was rather successful. He posted a .787 OPS in 465 plate appearances. Unfortunately, his WAR was a measly -0.1, due to defensive woes. Most of his time was spent in right field, even though he was drafted as a corner infielder.
Walker’s Redemption Arc has been Year in the Making
The front office in St. Louis saw potential for improvement. Walker’s success at the plate in year one was supposed to be foreshadowing. Coaches dreamed of what he could become if he started to pull the ball in the air. His upside is similar to what’s been said of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or James Wood. Two big bodies that struggled with the groundball bug. St. Louis decided to send Walker down so he could work on hitting the ball in the air.
The experiment flustered the young Walker. Over the next two seasons, he toiled in the cellar of NL hitters. Walker’s 2025 was especially bad, ending with an OPS of .584, and only 6 home runs in 111 games.
Fans grew frustrated with the once-promising talent. So much so, even that many were on board with the idea of offloading Walker ahead of 2026. Other prospects like Joshua Baez and Chase Davis were nipping at his heels ahead of the 2026 season. St. Louis netted plenty of new prospects due to their offseason sell-off, bringing in even more competition for roster spots.
Walker tuned out the noise and honed in on his process and the things he could control. In a report from Brian Murphy of MLB.com, Walker discussed how he retooled his swing to put himself in a better position. His work started at Cressey Sports Performance, where fellow Redbird phenom JJ Wetherholt also spent time.
Walker was quoted as saying he was “Just trying to put it all together to have a monster season.” During spring, Walker struggled immensely and ended up on the backfields. He was missing games to put in extra work. Some fans took it as a sign of bad things to come. Walker doesn’t seem to notice or care about his preseason offensive drought.
St. Louis entered 2026 with a new front office, new faces on the field, and a different vibe. The Cardinals have always competed. If Jordan Walker continues his torrid pace, they might not need as much time to retool as expected.
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