Hitting with 'freedom,' Walker continues historic stretch of homers

ST. LOUIS -- Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker has been asked about his power surge a lot recently, and he consistently answers the questions in a similar manner each time as the baseball world demands to learn more about the origins of his remarkable offensive turnaround.

Walker's response? He's keeping it simple and sticking to the process.

Well, having a process is all well and good -- but the results are getting harder to deny for the resurgent Cardinals slugger.

Walker walloped his Major League-leading eighth home run of the season on Monday night in the Cards' 9-3 loss to the Guardians at Busch Stadium, jumping on the first pitch he saw from Cleveland starter Gavin Williams in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Walker continues to hit his way into team history. His eight home runs over the team’s first 16 games matches the early season marks of Scott Rolen (2004), Mark McGwire (1998) and Stan Musial ('54).

In Cardinals history, only Albert Pujols has had a more torrid home run pace than Walker’s start to 2026, with 11 home runs in the club's first 16 games in 2006.

“Wow. That means a lot, man,” Walker said about the company with which his latest home run placed him. “Those are the greats. You learn about those guys early on as soon as you come into the Cardinals organization, so to be put with them is pretty special."

While much of Walker’s improvement this season has been tied to his increasing plate discipline, he didn’t need to wait for a hitter-friendly count to know that Williams let a sweeper catch too much of the plate.

“If the first pitch is a good pitch to hit, I need to go for it,” Walker said. “But also, what mixes in with that is not chasing first pitch, as well. It’s just an even mix, staying within myself. If it’s a first pitch, middle-middle, I want to try to be better at going after it.”

Walker has decreased his chase rate on pitches out of the zone from 34.1% in 2025 to 28.6% so far this season -- better than the league average (29.6%).

Turning a weakness into a newfound strength has done wonders for Walker’s confidence at the plate, as has the work that went into that turnaround.

“He's prepared to the level where he can hit with some freedom right now,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “I think it’s been the key to this whole thing. There’s been, obviously, the mechanical side of things -- and we can speak to that for days. But the preparation that is going into how he's going to be attacked … [it] is at a different level right now.

“When you’re prepared for the test, man, it’s a lot easier to go up there and trust it.”

The rebound for Walker has been dramatic, particularly when comparing to his numbers over the past two seasons. He finished the 2025 campaign with a .584 OPS; following Monday’s homer, that number is at 1.161 -- almost twice that total from mere months ago.

His power has put Walker in plenty of headlines over this stretch, in which he's piled up six homers in his past seven games, and seven in his last nine. But the complete nature of his game lately should not be overlooked -- a sign his hard work is paying off.

In a loss Monday that didn't consistently feature the brand of crisp baseball upon which the Cardinals pride themselves, Marmol used Walker's hustle down the line to beat out an infield hit in the eighth inning as an example of what this young clubhouse aims to achieve.

“To beat that out and to still have that level of intensity, it speaks a lot as to the mentality of, not only Jordan, but the group,” Marmol said. “I love that part of the game. That’s a big part of the game that we continue to highlight and make sure we do that often.”