The Cardinals are planning to recall top outfield prospect Jordan Walker from Triple-A Memphis, reports Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat (Twitter link). He’ll be back in the majors for Friday’s series opener in Pittsburgh. The Cards will presumably announce their corresponding active roster move tomorrow.
Walker returns for a second MLB stint. The 21-year-old broke camp with St. Louis and started in right field on Opening Day. He wasn’t completely overmatched in his first month. Walker made headlines for a 12-game hitting streak early on and hit a roughly league average .274/.321/.397 through 20 contests.
Nevertheless, St. Louis made the decision to send him back to the minors at the end of April. Walker’s defensive marks weren’t good and his solid slash line belied mounting chase and ground-ball rates at the dish. The demotion wasn’t especially alarming considering Walker’s youth and that St. Louis had jumped him directly from Double-A to the majors in the first place.
While the former first-round pick got off to a bit of a slow start in Memphis, he’s turned things on of late. Walker is hitting .267/.376/.433 over his past 23 games, drawing free passes at a robust 11.9% clip against a decent 21.1% strikeout rate. His 44.6% grounder percentage in Triple-A is well shy of the 60.4% rate at which he put the ball on the ground in the majors.
The Cardinals determined he’s ready for another look at the highest level. St. Louis’ outfield has thinned over the past few weeks. Tyler O’Neill and Dylan Carlson both landed on the injured list since Walker was optioned. O’Neill seems without a clear return timetable as he battles lingering back issues.
Utilityman Brendan Donovan has gotten the bulk of the right field work lately but can bounce around the diamond. Primary left fielder Alec Burleson has struggled to a .237/.289/.397 line on the year, including a meager .245/.293/.340 showing in May. The Cardinals are carrying Óscar Mercado on the MLB roster as a depth outfielder but have only given him five starts since selecting his contract two weeks ago. Mercado’s ability to back up Lars Nootbaar in center field gives him more defensive value than Burleson, though the Cards gave Tommy Edman his first career start there earlier in the week.
Walker will surely be in the lineup on a regular basis now that he’s back in the majors, probably most directly impacting Burleson’s playing time. While he’ll again be paid at the MLB minimum rate and collect service time, the option is likely to push back his path to free agency. Walker spent over a month in the minors and won’t get the 172 days on an MLB roster that’d get him a full service year this season.
Unless he earns “bonus” service time by finishing in the top two in NL Rookie of the Year balloting, he won’t be on track to reach free agency until after the 2029 season. If he’s in the majors from here on out, he’d qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player following the ’25 campaign. Future minor league assignments could alter that path, of course. This is the first of three years in which Walker can be optioned.
Showcasing him in the majors before he gets shipped off for cease
He will get shipped off for someone
More likely they trade for the injured Eduardo Rodriguez. St Louis will probably throw in Gorman, Winn and partial ownership of their franchise…that was sarcasm.
Walker rocks!
0 chance that happens and Cease is sporting average ass peripherals this year. 4.40 FIP ain’t worth a top 5 prospect.
I doubt they’ll trade Walker… especially not for James Shields
Please don’t say foolish, trollish things. Keep this fact in mind, Walker, Winn, Gorman, Noot, and Donovan won’t be traded anywhere by Moe. They are the future rocks of this franchise. Saying otherwise makes you look like a silly childish Cub troll.
Walker looks like at best he will turn out to be a josh bell. Which is pretty mediocre. Best to move on from him now while he still has value.
Straighten up or you’ll force me to mute you.
He performed only a little better at Triple A than he was playing in MLB. I think he’s going to have the same issues again…
Did you read the article? He performed way better in the minors.
Yep, I read it. Numbers weren’t too inspiring.
Overall this is true but lately they’ve improved. Especially the last 1-2 weeks.
Nice sample size
Did you? The part that stood out to me was “drawing free passes at a robust 11.9% clip against a decent 21.1% strikeout rate.”. It can’t be both ‘decent’ and ‘robust’. The numbers combined = a 1.77 K/W, which is only decent overall.
I picked the last 14 games at random and he has a 16/7 K/W & 3 HRs in 56 ABs. He has the age thing going in his favor, but this smells a little like the Jo Adell picture when he first got promoted. He’s better than Adell was at this age, but I wouldn’t expect too much in the near future.
Well I mean, I would call Joey Gallo’s walk rate ‘robust’ but his strikeout rate ‘poor’. We’re talking about two different statics here.
The only thing he marginally improved in the minors was his groundball rate and walk rate… his triple slash line was virtually the same
My feaar also.
Burleson might do well with a trip down to figure some things out. His numbers suggest a lot of bad luck so a stint away from big league expectations to get back to basics could do him some good.
I’m suprised Burleson has struggled as much as he has with regular playing time? Guess it’s because he isn’t Cuban? Burleson figures to mash when he puts it together
Burly destroyed AAA pitching and has nothing to prove or even “work on” down there. He’s going to be the Cards 4th OF’er or traded, so might as well let him gain more MLB experience. Plus, he stays healthy which is something it seems few other Cardinals OF’ers can pull off.
They are smart for manipulating his service time! They can always hope a guy succeeds at first, but, if he doesn’t, they can just demote him and get an extra .8 year out of him.
And this is much better as a fan. It allows talented rookies to break camp and get the opportunity to stick but they have to perform or get sent down. Much more likely to get the best 26-man product
It depends on the team, but if I didn’t care about service time, I would bring my prospects up in mid-August, not April 1st. You are unlikely to get as much press coverage, and some teams will be playing out the string.
We will see what we will see. My expectations are for a 775 OPS with hope for a much better result. He has to commit to getting the ball in the air, line drives and big flys. There superstardom lies.
Didn’t I see somewhere that Walker is giving up on the new swing they were trying to instill on him, and he was reverting back to his old swing?
Love all these comments. They sent him back to the minors to work on putting the ball in the air more. He was hitting it on the ground at too high a clip and they wanted to change that. Yes his D could have used a little work too, so that was also a benefit. He is not going anyway, especially for Cease. He is the best OF they have, he’s their future.!
The guy just gained the ability to purchase alcohol legally 10 days ago……you’re kinda dense aren’t you son?
Three years ago, I said the same thing about Adell. Angel fans went nuts. Walker looks better, relative to his age, but I wouldn’t expect too much for a year or two.
Dude he’s 21.
Silly troll, you are.
Getting Moustakas vibes. Which isn’t necessarily horrible.
I’m looking forward to watching Jordan Walker play in the OF every day and watch him hit! He has the potential to be a true star! A definite KEEPER!
Hopefully he takes the necessary steps forward. At worst he becomes Jason Heyward with the bat.
A lot of the time when guys are getting beat by the FB they hit the ball on the ground. Trying to overly lift the ball will cause the baseball to exit below the barrel creating ground balls. Marmol talks in circles, how is this guy better than Mike Shildt?
Because of his height, Walker mostly needs to lay off low pitches, b/c he’s unable to elevate the low stuff, especially heat at or below the knees.
Unless they plan to use him out of the bullpen, I don’t understand this move.
Mercado or Burleson?
Keep Burly, dfa Mercado. Mike Antico and Victor Scott II are CF’ers rising fast in the minors and could be ready for Memphis. Cards also have another corner outfielder charging up the ranks – Chandler Redmond, who’s a power bat.
How about Barrera? He’s been dead weight since being called up.
Totally agree with you – Berrera should be sent back to Memphis or released. Ivan Herrera has been ripping the cover off the ball and is getting close to the Bigs. I’d send him down and call up Luken Baker so he can back up Goldy.
I bought into the spring training hype. I thought Jordan Walker would be ROY. His defense isn’t sterling and ‘overmatched’ at the plate?
What a mess of a roster. Donovan and Edman are both better defensively and with the bat than this clown and they’re utility infielders.
Four middle infielders for two positions.
Three catchers for one position
Six outfielders.
A garbage rotation.
Gets you-
.439
Keep the giraffe in Memphis so his value doesn’t plummet more than it already has.
It’s time Walker continue his MLB career, which takes consistent, daily at-bats. His main issue is swinging at pitches below his knees. Like Gorman last year with high heat, Walker has to learn to lay off the low pitches – all of them. The Cards OF hitting numbers rank near last in MLB – it’s an abysmal situation. The future OF looks like Noot in LF, Carlson in CF, and Walker in RF, with Burly being #4. Cards need to make the decision, and work to those ends asap. Get Carlson and Noot healthy, trim the excess fat (like Mercado, trade TON, put middle infielders back on the infield, etc.), and then let the outfielders play.
Meh, This is because the team is down 3 outfielders. Now they need to stop carrying 3 catchers on the roster.
What do you mean by “this”? Low OF production? If so, no, even when TON and Carlson were healthy the Cards’ OF still didn’t produce. Noot is the only consistent hitter out there, although, he’s turning into Matt Carpenter by trying to walk all the time, but that’s another story.
I mean the original 3 outfielders are injured.
Does anyone expect hitters to start hitting pitches out of the zone? The choice isn’t a walk or a hit when a pitcher is throwing pitches out of the zone. The choice is a walk or an out.