Jordan Walker is again within the large leagues. The Cardinals on Monday introduced that they’ve recalled the previous prime prospect from Triple-A Memphis and positioned Matt Carpenter on the 10-day injured record with a decrease again pressure. Carpenter’s IL placement is retroactive to Aug. 9.
Walker made his large league debut as a 20-year-old in 2023 and did so to appreciable fanfare. The 2020 first-rounder entered final season ranked as a consensus top-five prospect in your complete sport, due largely to the efficiency of his bat. He pounded eight extra-base hits (three homers, 5 doubles) in 67 spring plate appearances and landed on the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster as their beginning proper fielder.
The educational curve for Walker proved pretty steep as he tried to skip Triple-A totally. He started his profession on a 12-game hitting streak however quickly fell right into a hunch on the plate. Provided that he was already struggling to adapt to a shift to the outfield — his pure place, third base, is after all spoken for in St. Louis — the Playing cards optioned him close to the tip of April. He was despatched down with a roughly common .274/.321/.397 batting line on the time.
Walker returned in June and regarded like a brand new hitter. From June 2 by season’s finish, he successfully maintained the identical batting common however did so with a notable bump in OBP and significantly extra energy. Over his closing 387 plate appearances, he hit .277/.346/.455 with 14 homers, 16 doubles, a pair of triples, an improved 8.8% stroll price and a 21.7% strikeout price that sat decrease than league common. For a participant with minimal Triple-A expertise who turned 21 in Could, it was a extremely encouraging end to his rookie marketing campaign.
Coming into the present season, Walker had a lineup spot locked up. Nonetheless, his ’24 marketing campaign began out with a protracted swoon on the plate that noticed him hit simply .155/.239/.259 in 67 plate appearances earlier than being optioned again to Memphis. He’s been there since, due primarily to the truth that his struggles have persevered since being despatched again down. By means of his first 252 plate appearances again in Memphis, Walker managed solely a .234/.300/.357 batting line. His 8.3% stroll price and 19.1% strikeout price have been each strong, if unspectacular marks, however he’s had the identical grounder-heavy method that he’s proven within the main leagues. For a participant with above-average however not elite velocity — particularly one whose calling card is 70- or 80-grade uncooked energy — hitting almost half your batted balls on the bottom is a sub-optimal consequence.
Over the previous few weeks, the now-22-year-old Walker has begun to show issues round in Memphis. He’s belted 5 homers and tallied a dozen extra-base hits over his previous 16 video games. It’s solely a pattern of 67 plate appearances, however Walker has sizzled with a .343/.400/.687 slash in that point — far and away his greatest stretch of the season at any degree.
The Cardinals might be hoping to see extra of that degree of output from Walker as they push to get again into Wild Card place. Although St. Louis has spent a great portion of the summer time in possession of a Wild Card spot within the Nationwide League, they’ve dropped a recreation and a half behind the Braves, who presently maintain the third spot. The Mets are a recreation forward of the Cardinals and are additionally vying for the ultimate spot.
St. Louis has struggled towards left-handed pitching all through the season, presently rating as one of many worst lineups in baseball versus southpaws. Their mixed .233/.296/.359 slash towards lefties interprets to an 85 wRC+ (suggesting they’re 15% worse than league-average on the plate). Walker will give them one other right-handed bat to assist assault opposing lefties, but it surely’s value mentioning that he’s struggled tremendously towards lefties each within the majors final 12 months and in Triple-A this season. Walker batted .231/.294/.389 towards southpaws in ’23 and has a mixed .234/.304/.378 slash towards them between Memphis and St. Louis this season.
