“We’re going to have to see this through,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold, and no Cardinals fan needs to be told that those eight words were about Jordan Walker. Sometimes it can feel like all the Cardinals’ words are about Jordan Walker.
Spring Training stats, as we hear all the time, do not matter. But it is impossible to ignore Walker’s, given how important this year is for him. He is 7-for-40 (.175) this spring, with no extra-base hits, three walks and 15 strikeouts.
This comes after not only the least productive year of his career – Walker’s -1.2 WAR in 2025, per FanGraphs, was the sixth lowest in the Majors – but also after an offseason in which Walker’s supposed progress was a big story surrounding the team. In September 2025, Marmol and Cardinals hitting coach Brant Brown told KMOX’s Bernie Miklasz that Walker was “going to have to devote more focus on preparation,” a clear indication that Walker was not doing what he needed to do in order to reach his significant potential. With the new front office led by president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom in place, and Walker pinpointed as a major offseason priority, the hope was that Walker would, at last, take that big step forward.
It has not happened, at least not yet. Walker has struggled so much this spring that the Cardinals pulled him from the lineup for three days and essentially put him in the lab, having him just face specific situations and pitchers on the Trajekt machine. He returned on Tuesday – and in three games since then is 1-for-10 with four strikeouts.
Nothing Walker does happens in a vacuum: You cannot separate any conversation about Walker’s present from Walker’s past … and supposed future. Walker was one of the top prospects in baseball heading into the 2023 season and was the Opening Day right fielder, set to be the player that bridged the Cardinals from the Nolan Arenado-Paul Goldschmidt generation to, presumably, the Walker generation. But despite an impressive hitting streak to start his career – his rookie year remains his best season – Walker has struggled to make progress. In fact, he’s regressed.
There are debates about whether the Cardinals rushed him in 2023, whether they should have given him more time to learn the outfield after moving off third base, whether too much was put on his shoulders. Those questions seem immaterial now: He is about to start his fourth big league season, and time is starting to run out on him in St. Louis.
Walker is still young, only 23 (he’ll turn 24 on May 22), but fans understandably are losing patience with his lack of tangible progress. After a while, “see this through” starts to look like throwing good money after bad.
That all prompts this question: Should the Cardinals keep putting Walker out there? Should he be the starting right fielder for the fourth consecutive Opening Day? Or should he start the season at Triple-A Memphis? (He has one option year remaining.) Here are arguments for each position.
KEEP HIM IN THE MAJORS
This is supposed to be a transition year.
The Cardinals are quietly a little more optimistic about their chances to field a decent team than most outside observers, but it’s fair to say that this isn’t a season in which they will be absolutely devastated if they fall short of the playoffs. The focus is on the future. This season is for finding out who is a member of the next great Cardinals team.
Which means, theoretically, you can afford to put Walker in right field all season and ride out his cold and (hopefully) hot streaks. You can give him a full season of at-bats and find out, once and for all, what you have. This is the time to do it.
What would another trip to the Minors do to his confidence?
The most difficult aspect of watching Walker this spring hasn’t been his at-bats: It’s how he reacts to them. He looks lost – even forlorn. This is understandable, and hardly a character flaw.
If I’d gone through the three successive seasons Walker has, my shoulders would be slumping, too.
Walker’s physical tools are obvious, but his inability to get them to translate into production is more than taking its toll. Is sending him down to Memphis – giving him a demotion right when he’s working his hardest – the right call? Or will it do more harm than good?
There is no clear alternative in right field.
If Walker had a standout competitor pushing him right now, someone who has earned a starting spot in a way Walker hasn’t, it would be simple to just put him there and let Walker fight to get his spot back. But there isn’t one. Nelson Velázquez’s emergence has earned him an Opening Day start – and perhaps the cleanup spot in the lineup – but with Lars Nootbaar still injured, his place is likely left field.
So who plays right? Nathan Church? Do you move Velázquez to right and put, say, Thomas Saggese in left? Do you just filter in José Fermín occasionally? Eventually Joshua Báez (MLB Pipeline’s No. 87 prospect) may be that person – he’s certainly the one putting the most upward pressure on Walker right now – but he hasn’t played a single game above Double-A. He’s got plenty to prove himself first. Are we sure any of those options are actually better than just giving Walker the job?
SEND HIM DOWN
Continuing to struggle isn’t great for his confidence, either.
You think Walker’s going to be bummed if you send him to Memphis before the season starts? Imagine doing it after he has slugged .301 for two months. Walker hasn’t shown anything this spring that should make anybody think he’s going to suddenly snap to and start launching the ball against big league pitchers once the games start to count.
That means you’re probably looking at more struggles … and more reasons for Walker to be down in the dumps. If you think you’re going to have to send him down to Memphis to get his confidence (and his stroke) back eventually, isn’t it better to get it over with now?
You have to make him earn it.
One of the fans’ biggest frustrations with Walker is that he keeps getting chances despite no track record of success so far. The Cardinals now have a new leadership in charge, a group that is stacking talent throughout the Minors, ostensibly, to see which players rise to the top.
Is simply handing the job, again, to Walker despite him having done almost nothing to earn it the right message to send up and down this organization? Why does nobody else get as many chances as Walker does?
Some competition may be good for him.
Let’s say Walker starts the season at Memphis – in the very same outfield as Báez. That could be exactly what Walker needs. He has reached the point in his career in which he is, despite his age, starting to run out of time. If the Cardinals option him to the Minors at any point this season, he’ll be out of options in 2027 and beyond, opening up the possibility of another team swiping Walker if St. Louis tries to send him down.
This is the last time you’ll be able to push Walker in this way. Nothing else has worked. Maybe playing alongside another huge, power-hitting prospect in Báez, and seeing him succeed, will snap this all into place? If not now, when?
SO WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
It’s a difficult call, whatever your perspective. For what it's worth, with the way Walker is struggling right now – even after this latest reset the team tried – it’s difficult to see how he snaps out of this soon enough to make a place on the Opening Day roster work out well for him. It’s easier to build confidence off success than off struggles, and Walker looks far more likely to me to have success in Memphis than in St. Louis right now.
Opening Day is less than one week away. It’s a call that’s going to have to be made very soon. And it’s one that may end up affecting the Cardinals’ future, and Walker’s, for many years to come.