The Cardinals announced Wednesday that they’ve optioned right fielder Jordan Walker and lefty Zack Thompson to Triple-A Memphis. Infielder Jose Fermin and southpaw John King are being recalled from Memphis to take their spots on the roster.
It’s been a brutal start to the season for the 21-year-old Walker, who entered the 2023 season widely considered one of the game’s top 10 prospects and debuted with a .276/.342/.445 showing as a rookie. He’s looked lost at the plate in his sophomore season, hitting just .155/.239/.259 with a 26.9% strikeout rate and no home runs in his first 67 trips to the plate. Given the magnitude of those struggles and the Cardinals’ 10-14 start to the season — fifth in the NL Central — they’ll send Walker down to try to get the promising young slugger back on track.
This isn’t the first time the Cards have sent Walker to Memphis amid some struggles at the plate. Though he made the Opening Day roster in St. Louis last season and began his career with a 12-game hitting streak, Walker slumped in the aftermath and was optioned to Triple-A in late April — both to get his bat back on track and to afford the converted third baseman some additional reps in right field. His defense remains a work in progress, but Walker returned to the big leagues on June 2 and turned in a stout .277/.346/.455 batting line with 16 home runs, an 8.8% walk rate and a 21.7% strikeout rate in his final 387 plate appearances on the season.
With Walker down in Memphis, the Cardinals will go with Alec Burleson in left field, Michael Siani in center and Lars Nootbaar in right field. It’s not the alignment the team envisioned heading into the season, but they’re still without Dylan Carlson (shoulder sprain) and Tommy Edman (recovering from wrist surgery) and have also optioned prospect Victor Scott II to Memphis in the wake of his own struggles (.085/.138/.136 in 65 plate appearances).
From a service time vantage point, Walker’s optional assignment doesn’t figure to change his free agent timeline but could potentially alter his path to arbitration. He accrued 149 days of service in 2023, setting him up to reach Super Two status following the 2025 season and reach arbitration four times rather than three. If Walker is only down for a few weeks, he’ll very likely remain on that path. If his optional assignment extends a month or more, as it did in ’23, it’s possible he could wind up falling shy of Super Two status and be on a more standard arbitration path. Either way, he’s already picked up enough service this season to reach the one-year mark, so he remains on track for free agency following the 2029 season.
Fermin’s recall to the big leagues is of some note for the Cards, given his early performance in Memphis. The 25-year-old hit just .235/.339/.255 in 61 plate appearances during last year’s MLB debut and was generally credited with bottom-of-the-scale power on scouting reports. He’s torn the cover off the ball in his first 72 plate appearances this year, however, belting four homers and hitting .350/.458/.650 with 11 walks (15.3%) against just three strikeouts (4.2%). He’s chipped in six doubles and also gone 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts. It’s unlikely he can sustain that level of production against major league pitching, of course, but he’s earned the opportunity to carve out a role on the big league roster.
Thompson, 26, made two starts early in the season but was rocked for eight runs in 10 1/3 innings. He moved back to the bullpen and has been working in a long relief role. The results haven’t been any better. Though he fired 3 1/3 shutout innings with six strikeouts against the Phillies on April 10, he’s followed that up with 10 runs over his next two appearances. He’ll give way to King, who allowed a run in 2 1/3 innings earlier this season and has yielded two runs in 5 1/3 Triple-A frames thus far.
They’ve already broken Jordan Walker by trying to get him to lift the ball more than his natural swing does. Everyone around the club knows this. Yet no one wants to talk about it.
Jose Fermin will not replace him.
If so he just needs to say I’m going back to what got me where I was…if they don’t like it force their hand to trade him
This aint the NBA.
What do you mean everyone around the team…
He had a solid second half and improved as the season went on. Nowhere close to his ceiling but he was a rookie in his early 20’s
The sad thing is the best option to bring is Fermin? So, there is no depth in the system or is the system not good at producing major league talent? Going to be a long dumpster fire this season in STL.
Fermin has been killing the ball. Started in the Dominican League, then Spring training, and now in Memphis. Deserves a call-up. The question is where do you play him? Maybe 2nd against lefties? He should be passable in one of the corner outfield spots. Thompson deserves the demotion. Not that excited about King, but Romero needs a late inning compliment. Siani is a good late-inning replacement, but cannot hit enough to start. Sure could use Edman and Carlson, soon I know. Gotta wonder about Turner Ward. Changed Donovan’s approach, didn’t, help Scott or Walker, can’t seem to aid Goldie, maybe it is time for a different voice.
Hitting coach’s seat should be getting really warm. Turns out taking fastballs down the middle and then hacking at off-speed pitches off the plate is a bad approach. Goldy, Gorman and Walker should all just go back to what ever they did before. Stop relying on video so much that any no-name call up shuts us out. It has been their plan for years. Any also FIRE MO and OLI!!!
What hitting coach ? we don’t have one or a pitching coach nor a manager , we have a three ring circus with MO as the clown
Yes, Fermin deserves the call-up, but he’s still only a bench player. He’ll just have to make the best of what little playing time he does get.
What does Mozeliak have to do with this? So far, most of his offseason moves have worked, especially Gray, Lynn, and Kittredge.
Its still April.
Fermin isn’t meant to replace him, just hold the roster spot until Walker or one of the position players on the IL comes back. Maybe he stays longer if they DFA Crawford by then.
If we had a hitting coach with actual MLB experience then maybe he could help our players
bpskelly—— You are Exactly Correct!!!
Jordan Walker was a good contact hitter who did not strikeout frequently, plus had a good eye at the plate.
Cardinals Coaches didn’t like his style. The Coaches want him to abandon his contact approach and practice launch angle instead..
You can see it in his eyes when he comes to the plate this season—- he’s lost.
As a natural contact hitter in ‘23 —— he led the team in hitting at .278.
Leave the kid alone and let him use his own hitting style!! It got him to the majors.
That’s better than the hitting coaches the Cardinals can say for themselves—- none of them were MLB Yearly Starters!!!
Overhyped and was never ready. He never earned a big league promotion. Him starting on opening day is what torpedoed last years season and it’s continued from there. His defense last year was HORRIBLE. This year his defense looked improved but he must have not practiced hitting because his offense looks awful. He needs to EARN his job this time no handouts.
His 114 OPS+ last year is definitive proof that you’re dead wrong, to an almost trolling degree. Maybe it wasn’t the best time for his overall development to promote him, and that would be the reasonable debate, but to claim he hadn’t “earned” it just plays us all for fools.
He was literally the worst defensive player in all of baseball up until Septemeber when he finally improved. And his big league OPS was higher than his AAA OPS.
I figured there would be some silly Cardinal fans to show up and defend him. You are part of the problem. Jordan Walker isn’t any good. Maybe one day he will be but he needs to EARN his job this time.
@Blackpink — “worst defensive player in all of baseball” — by what measure? Eye-test, OAA, dWAR, UZR, gut…?
Not defending him – just curious.
According to Fangraphs. He didn’t finish as the worst he actually played better defensive in September. But until then he was the worst. Worse than Schwarber.
And yes the eye test agreed with the stats. His routes were awful I swear there are little leaguers that took better routes to the ball than he did in 2023. No instincts at all.
His offense last year still more than made up for his bad defense, and his defense has gradually improved since he began playing RF.
Now that his offense has slumped badly this season, you’re correct that he’s no longer earned the job, so they’ve sent down to AAA.
He was a 1 win player last year. And all that value came in September prior to September he was below replacement level. His offense did not make up for his terrible defense that’s simply false.
His rookie stats say otherwise
What stats?
Anyone who looks at only offensive stats in 2024 is a fool
Walker sucks
lol …
So we can’t be honest about Walker and how he’s performing because he’s black? Now that’s racist.
I don’t care if he’s white or black or brown or purple. I want what’s best for the team I root for and Walker has sucked since he showed up.
it was sarcasm… and funny
It’s really not funny. A lot of Cardinal fans defend him and claim racism when anyone says something bad about him. That’s real.
dude, it was funny…
@Blackpink/Joel Stop it already, you do not even watch the sport. You have zero business talking about “eye test”.
You ve been on heare arguing with others as though they were trying to invent a pitch to deceive you mentioning the sweeper. You ve been on here trying to say how a lefty should be playing SS or 2B. Then you were oblivious to why they done play most IF positions or that few do. You ve spoke of certain pitches from specific players that they ve never thrown. And on and on….
You are the poster boy for someone who is a fan of stats and sports news yet does not even watch the game. Using the name “Joel” is one of the most discrediting things one could say on this site, that is how ridiculous your comments are.
Anyone who believes bad defense is worse than good offense is positive at any position other than catcher is a fool. Besides, the DH position exists in the NL now. If his offense had carried over from last year, at worst he’d be the primary DH.
You don’t look st only offense or only defense you add it all up and when yoh do Walker sucks. And this year he can’t hit. So….
So not funny.
—His rookie stats say otherwise—
Here are some early career, 1 year wonder names to ponder:
1) Dominic brown
2) Bill Jo Robidoux
3) Mike Yastrzemski
Can go on and on regarding Heywardish hype machine prospects. Walker, Kelenic another Andy Marte. Some are often never anything.
sorry, but Mike is NOT a 1 year wonder.
It’s not uncommon for players to endure a sophomore slump in their second year in baseball
And having a good rookie year doesn’t always guarantee a good follow-up
He didn’t have a good rookie year!!!!
i agree he should have been in aaa all of last year clowns are running the cards
This kid is not the reason this team flopped last year
Yes he is. Playing him in the outfield was a giant mistake and it meant moving all the other outfielders around. It certainly wasn’t the only reason but it was a big one.
Ever since Walker showed up the team has sucked.
He is one of the reasons for the team’s struggles offensively this year and last year. He’s on the team to be a quality supporting bat on the road to stardom. That hasn’t really happened yet. That guys like Walker, Carlson, and Gorman have so far flopped in relation to what was expected of them is a big reason that this team has done poorly. All three were supposed to be potentially elite hitters. Maybe they will get to that point eventually, but there’s not a ton of evidence yet. Keep in mind these guys, along with Noot and Donny (who’ve both been pretty good) were supposed to be the supporting cast to Goldy and Arenado, and eventually the star hitters of this team.
Gorman I wouldn’t lump in there with the other 2. Gorman is a hot streak away from looking good and doing exactly what was expected of him. Carlson definitely hasn’t lived up to expectations but replacing him with an even more undeserving Walker last year didn’t help things.
40% k rate, continuing from his 2nd half dive last year, but he’s the one that gets to be “a hot streak away”. Every player with bad stats 3 weeks into the season are a hot streak away… such analysis
Yeah, Gorman’s hr totals do not yet justify his strikeouts, in my opinion. His defense isn’t great and isn’t really an asset on the bases. He doesn’t hit for average nor does he walk enough. The OPS+ was ok as a rookie and was nice last year, but nothing that will carry an offense.
So far he’s been pretty streaky one-dimensional hitter and this year, ineffective.
Gorman doesn’t need to carry the offense to be a valuable player. He had a good year in 2023. He has raised his OPS 80 something points in the last 3 games. He’s streaky. Power hitters tend to put up their best numbers when the weather heats up. Gorman will be fine.
Yeah, I question Gorman too. To early to bench him, but he is a one dimensional player. When Edman returns, he has to play 2nd. It is his best position. Gorman can DH. Once Carlson returns things get a little crowded. Unfortunately, both guys hit better from the right side. Carlson will have to start in center, defense will suffer some, but the Cards need production there. In left it will have to be Burleson, at least for awhile.
Seemingly every player in the league from that 2020 draft class is a mess.
Would say Emerson Hancock has done well to come back from injuries and hasn’t looked out of place as a Mariners starter.
Got tagged bad by the Brewers else his ERA would look a lot rosier, especially given his last two being quality starts.
One of them was vs the Rockies. That doesn’t count.
not even close, plenty of amazing players from the 2020 draft class, care for me to list a few?
No
well then don’t say every is a mess then lmao.
A hit on teams going 90% analytics and 10% laying more eyes on an actual player, getting to know them etc. Like how they handle themselves rather than how much some pitch spins.
2020 was better overall than some and still time for guys to develop. Look at 2017, go down 1st 2 rounds. Varsho with the Jays now (rd2) Tanner Houck (late 1st) few mid relievers, back end starters, utility players at best. Bust of a draft.
Yeah, analytics a must..
But Masyn Winn has gotten off to a great start!
This front office and coaching staff has to be the worst in baseball. The way they handled Contreras (and signing him in the first place without understanding his weaknesses), the lack of development with last year’s #1 prospect and how they handled him.. the fumbling of good prospects and trading them to other teams for failed returns.. the inability to develop and/or acquire good starting pitching.. the hot mess of bullpen personnel..
Like what is this team’s strength going forward? What’s this team’s strength now?
You’ve only pointed out the negatives without mentioning the positives (like Goldschmidt, Arenado, Nootbaar, Donovan, Gorman, Gallegos, Romero, Helsley, and now Gray, Lynn, Kittredge, and Winn) that overall outnumber them. Even Contreras has been mostly a good signing so far.
Besides, most of the pitching has actually been very good so far this year.
Those “positive guys” have earned the team a .400 pace and a pronounced downward trend.
Go Cubs.
Dude the St. Louis Rams have a better record than the bears. Chill troll.
Non sequitur of the week..
Pro football in St. Louis? hahahahaha….
Dude the St Louis Rams have a better record than the bears. Chill troll.
…..dude Chicago has an NFL team. The Rams fled St.Louis ….
That’s my point.
The Cardinals need to face up to the fact that a total rebuild is needed. Trade anyone that has value and start over.
All true. But before they start the rebuild, they need a new front office.
A rebuild starting @the top of pyramid, need to recapture winning attitude n make better personel decisions. Time togo in different direction. Cards used to be solid team w/super fan base.
Little bit of an over reaction to one bad season, and its only April. October is a long way aways.
But the pitching is actually good now, and the offense should come around. There’s WAY too much talent on this team to go into a rebuild even if this does become another losing season.
Said the same last year. A lot of old guys and flash in the pan young guys who won’t all break out together. Not sure I’m in favor of demolishing the team but I feel like as currently constructed, their ceiling is low.
Givin the keys to the cards would as a prestige opening as it gets in baseball. Be interesting to see who they can attract
English, please. Even from St. Louis that’s bad.
Dudes had plenty of time to improve. Burleson is the best bat they have in the OF and doesn’t get the playing time. Now he should and will prove he’s better than they think .
Trouble is their decent players are now old and in decline and the pitchers they signed to 1 year deals in offseason were already old and in decline so hard to trade anyone. Long rebuild in sight
Since when are Nootbaar, Gorman, Donovan, Edman, Winn, Herrera, Helsley, Gallegos, Romero, Kittredge, etc. old and in decline? Walker will be back as a good hitter eventually, as well.
Meanwhile, Lynn certainly doesn’t look to be in decline anymore, Gibson has been OK, and we haven’t even seen Middleton yet.
Please don’t spam the comments with blatant falsehoods.
Stars who have a pace to win 66 games this year.
Don’t choke when you gulp the Kool-Aid.
STL is top 10 youngest in batting age. (8th)
And while the staff average is older, they’re still younger than both the Mets and Braves
agree cpl burleson has yet to get extended playing time
That is one poor looking outfield
The front office and coaching staff screwed Jordan Walker up so bad mentally. They promoted him a bit too early since he hadn’t even been to AAA. Then they send him down under the guise of “working on more loft in his swing”, when in reality they just wanted to get at bats for other guys to build value to trade at the deadline, which didn’t work anyways.
Now in 2024, he defense is still a work in progress, but much better, yet they still pull him at the end of every game he started, either defensively, or they pull him for a pinch hitter. Either way, they totally destroyed his confidence and mental and told him through actions that they don’t trust him or believe in him.
Nobody on this team looks like they are having fun and it’s all because the front office and coaching staff went way too hard into the advanced analytics. Advanced analytics and data need to supplement traditional baseball, not completely overtake it. Unfortunately, that’s what has happened in St. Louis and you are seeing how it is playing out the last 2 years.
Sadly, you’re correct.
How Mo and his front office minions keep their jobs is beyond me.
They’re not good at what they do, and haven’t been for the last 5-6 years.
Yet they’ve been top 5 in attendance for every year you mention. Quite impressive for the market size. The front office may not be delivering on the field results, but the y still continue to put butts in the seats. There’s your answer to how they’ve kept their jobs.
The front office and coaching hasn’t helped but let’s not blame all of Walker’s failures on someone else.
He’s simply not ready. I believe one day he will be a quality player but he’s not that guy yet. He wasn’t last year and he still isn’t this year.
Nah. You either believe in a guy and let him work through his transition to MLB, or you don’t. No purpose whatsoever for him to go down to the minors and tear the cover off the ball. He’s done that before. Cards have made mistake after mistake on position players, particularly for some reason outfielders. They’re making another one now. He won’t be in the Cards system this time next year.
He’s never performed at AAA. So no he hasn’t done that before. And no he won’t be traded. I won’t get into why but he won’t be traded.
You are delusional if you think the Cardinals are leading the pack in analytics.
Great inflammatory reply that is your inference and projection and what was said. Not once did I say they lead the pack. A front office can lean super heavy into advanced analytics and data without being good at it. In fact, that’s likely a reason the team stinks so bad the last couple years. But if you don’t think the Cardinals front office has completely leaned into data and pushed some of the traditional baseball thoughts aside, you haven’t been following the Cardinals closely enough.
Bro is a bust :skull:
Lifetime card fan, watch about 150 games a year. I’ve supported the team through ups and downs, but the last 4-5 years of talent evaluation needs improvement. Bad minor league evaluations led us to move Alcantra, and Zac Gallen, Arozarena, and O’Neil (who seems to be able to hit away from Cards), Lane Thomas, Adonis Garcia. Pitching hasn’t been the same since we lost Maddox as a pitching coach (or even Duncan before him). And it seems like Ollie is a nice guy better served as a third base coach. Just my opinion, but the front office and mgmt / coaching needs a reinvigoration.
we traded Adolis, not his brother Adonis. Adonis played for ATL years ago. Maddux was a good pitching coach for us, agreed. Sandy isn’t helping Miami this year and he wasn’t an ace in 23. He was fantastic in 22, though. Adolis struggled once he got to Texas, he was even DFA’d at one point but stayed because everyone passed on waivers. Hindsight is 20/20, but I don’t disagree with your premise regarding changes in the front office/management.
Sometimes the overhyped rookies are just that – overhyped.
He is only 21, so he may figure it out, but he has to learn to make adjustments and work on his defense. If a DH waiting to happen isn’t hitting, he isn’t any good to anyone unless he can.
The Cardinals have made a habit of overhyping players for awhile now. Them and the Chisox.
People got excited by his performance in AA and he was rushed up without proper time to develop. He actually did better in the bigs than he did in the 30 or so games in AAA. Could be that he was just overhyped. Carlson had a lot of hype as well and we see how that has worked out.
My hope is he gets things figured out in Memphis. They’re trying to make him adjust too much and my guess is his mental is just shook right now.
Moved him off 3B and attempted to change his swing. Time for the Cardinals to prepare for a shakeup in a couple months.
They should never have moved him off 3B. He wasn’t great there, but moving a potential star hitter right before he hits the big leagues is just an awful idea. I said it at the time, and I think it has been borne out: The Arenado trade made no sense, except in that they didn’t give up much to make it. They got their one great late-prime year out of him, but now he’s 33 and both his power and defense have taken big steps back. And somehow he’s still the 5th highest paid position player in baseball. That $35m should be in some starting pitcher’s pocket. Or two of them. They had not one but TWO major 3B prospects at the time. They found a home for Gorman and he adjusted well, but Walker they did not.
The Cards have this weird tendency to develop position players really well, and then to have no idea what they have.
He should never have been playing 3b. Once Arenado was acquired he was never going to play 3b.
The Rockies are paying a good chunk of Arenados deal. And I would do that deal over again all day. That’s not the problem at all.
The Rockies were paying all of $5m of his salary last year, and I think that was the final year of that.
Not true they are paying 5 million this year and the next couple years after that.
Arenado is still a great player. Not as good as he used to be but still a guy I’d take at 3B in a heartbeat. And that deal was fantastic. What’s Austin Gomber doing these days?
The players who went to the Rockies are irrelevant (although Gomber has pitched quite well this year, with an xFIP in the low 4’s. He’d probably be in the Cards rotation. I believe only Mikolas’ xFIP is better.) It’s the money. Cards have a limited payroll and Arenado is taking up $35m of it, with him and an aging-even-faster Goldschmidt taking up $60m). And he’s inevitably getting worse not better. I’d say right now he’s a good player, not great, and heading toward average.
You keep saying 35 million and that’s false. Goldschmidts deal ends this year. No they did not live up to their contracts in 2023 but they sure did in 2022 when both were top 3 in the MVP race.
Arenados salary declines as he ages. Look it up.
Disagree! No doubt things have gotten off to a troubling start, but all things considered there is room for optimism. I contend that Goldy and Arenado will be fine once the tablesetters get going. Many point to a decline from their corners, I say they will be fine. Both last year and this year they are constantly hitting with nobody on base. This deflates numbers. Soon this will changes. With Edman at second and Carlson in center their line-up will be stacked. Not to mención the best Infield defense in Baseball. Yeah their outfield defense will suffer, but Donovan in left, Carlson in center and Nootbar in right make up a decent trío, and Siani is a great late inning guy. I guess that leaves Gorman to DH, with lots of other options.
I’d sure put Arenado at 3B on the Brewers all day every day!
Did the Cards consider dealing Arenado at last year’s deadline or this offseason? They should have despite NTC. They’ve moved Gorman and Walker off 3B. Didn’t trade them for other pieces they needed. Total mismanagement of the roster.
Walker was never going to be a quality 3b. Gorman could have but he’s actually pretty good at 2b so it’s not a big deal. Arenado could perhaps be dealt to the Dodgers but he doesn’t have to be. The mismanagement has nothing to do with Arenado it’s all about the outfield and poor decisions with the rotation.
Walker could have been moved to 1B and the Cards move on from Goldschmidt (too late now). The mismanagement goes beyond Arenado. Arenado is the guy to trade come deadline as the Cards should be thinking about a soft teardown.
They could have dealt Walker after the 2022 season for SP. That was an option and they did not take it. They had guys to deal two years ago and didn’t. Now the guys they did not deal have depleting (or depleted) value.
So, now will my fellow Cardinals fans stop over-hyping Walker by saying he’s the next Albert Pujols?
No. They love Kardinal Kool-Aid.
Not until the next “phenom” comes along.
This GM needs to go. They extended the worst manager in baseball and they essentially have traded off many valuable players in recent years for nothing like Adolis Garcia, Randy Arozarena, Sandy Alcantara, Zac Gallen, etc. If I was the Cardinals owner, I’d hire Skip Schumaker once the 2024 season ends and see if they can hire the Astros old GM that got suspended for the cheating scandal, believe his name was Jeff Lunhow but I could be wrong. This organization has strayed away from the Cardinal way that got them up to this point in the first place. Their biggest mistake was firing Shildt because he didnt like analytics. Clueless GMs get paid millions
The title of “worst manager in baseball” belongs to Pedro Grifol. Everyone else can compete for second place.
Still young but needs to get back in the infield where he belongs and get his swing back on track. He’ll be back up around mid-season once the Cards trade Goldy.
Unless they think it’s a confidence issue, that decision seems odd. His BABIP shows bad luck and his hard hit rate is still good. Maybe there’s more to it than the stats show, but he’s still drawing walks and striking out at expected rates that it looks like an early season overreaction.
He has no homers. Is that bad luck too?
The overreaction was promoting him last year.
Its 60+ abs. Oh, the horror!
Things are going south in Redbirds country
Here’s the issue with Walker. It isn’t that he can’t play. The issue is that he is nowhere close to the player you want when you have a top-10 prospect. The Cards promoted him at age 20, despite having 32 Ks in 113 ABs in AAA. That’s 170/600 ABs, again, in AAA.
If this was a 23 year old Chavis/Dalbec type, you don’t care. But with a top-10 guy, he probably needed another year+ in AAA. And to make it worse, they are burning service time on a last-place team.
It wasn’t a last place team until they promoted him last year undeservingly.
The good thing is they can send him down for a month and now he will avoid being a super 2. That’s a good thing. But he should have been promoted when Winn was last year not last April. That was a mistake.
If Walker was sent back to triple A why is Gorman here? Why is Goldy here lol? The whole team offensively is absolutely pathetic! The rebuild should start at the top. The party is over with this ownership group time to reset and start fresh! Mo you got to go!!’ Marmol see ya!!! Get a real hitting and pitching coach!!! This is not a good team!!! Everyone saw it and everyone knew it!! This reminds me of the 88-95 teams under the Busch era. They sold and they reset they won from 2000-2015!!!
If Jo Adell was just a couple years younger LAA and STL could make a swap of players both in need of a change of scenery. At this point Cards fans should huddle with Angels fans to get some pointers on how to cling to that hype no matter what and only face reality when there’s simply no other choice.
Rays should trade for him, well give you arozarena back lol
Insanity ( doing the same thing expecting different outcome) We went through this last year trying to get Walker to lift the ball . Cardinals need to change Coaching staff , fire Marmol and MO. If you want change you have to make changes.
Brendan Donovan will also see plenty of time in LF, just as he is right now. In fact, it’s better for Burleson to play DH (when not taken by another starter like it is for Contreras right now) due to his weaker OF defense.
.232 wOBA
.304 xwOBA
The Cardinals turned a 6’6 250lb first round draft pick into a slap hitter who can’t even slap. He made the opening day roster last year because from a public relation standpoint, he had to. That feel good vibe sure went away quickly.
Jackson Holliday also overhyped and currently hitting .059. Did the O’s really need a t shirt giveaway at his home debut?
He’ll get traded and be a stud elsewhere
I know he is still young but the Cardinals have broken Jordan Walker that the best thing for him is to be traded, have a change of scenery and be successful somewhere else.
Now that is simply a stunning outfield….. Nootbar in right (decent OF), Siani in CF (at least he can run down the ball, but light bat), and Burleson in LF (brutal defensively… at best a rotating DH ). That is one of the worst OF in MLB ever!
This is addition by subtraction. Walker has ruined two OF positions so far this year–His own in RF, and CF with his stupid collision with Carlson.
“His defense remains a work in progress,” Haha, what an understatement.
So is World Peace.