MILWAUKEE – Very little of Jordan Walker’s 2026 campaign went as expected.
Not his Spring Training, when struggles at the plate resulted in him removing himself from game action and spending days reinventing his swing in the workout facility.
Not in March/April, when he hit nine home runs after tallying a combined 11 over the previous two seasons, nor July, when he hoisted a trophy in the middle of Citizens Bank Park after winning the Home Run Derby.
The same can be said for his September, which has become a trying stretch for Walker as he makes his way to the finish line of his first full season in the bigs. After putting up 22 homers and an .887 OPS over the first half while earning the first All-Star nod of his career, he heads into the final game of 2026 slashing .181/.242/.301 over the final month.
But as Walker looked back on a year that turned him from a fringe player on the Cardinals’ roster to a household name, the struggles he’s enduring down the stretch are just as important for his big league growth as the success they’ve followed.
“It's a long season,” Walker said after the Cardinals’ 3-2 loss to the Brewers Saturday night at American Family Field. “But, finish strong, don't finish strong, I think it's important for me to continue to get reps even when I'm not feeling the best at the plate. The more reps that I get, the better.
“It's only gonna make me better, whether you're seeing the ball like a beach ball or seeing it like a peanut. It's just a matter of being in the moment and learning from it.”
Therein lies the crux of how Walker has handled a disappointing finish to a breakout campaign. The struggles are there, neither he nor the Cardinals are pretending otherwise. But for a player who spent the first three seasons of his career fighting for frequent playing time, the only way to handle this trying completion to 2026 is to embrace how it will serve him in the long run.
“He didn't have a reference point for success as far as what he was trying to do and get back to,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “Now he does, and it's a matter of being consistent with it. ... Today he's able to talk through those things and carry a conversation about them, where before it was a much lower level of understanding and [having an] ability to articulate what he is trying to do.”
That improved communication with the coaching staff has gone a long way towards Walker finally finding a way to maintain strong plate production.
In previous seasons, the 24-year-old ran into trouble articulating to the coaching staff what he was going through. That led to continued scuffling, which often resulted in reduced playing time or options back to Triple-A.
But with this season came a change in approach. Walker began digging into the data the Cardinals provided him, and with that, he felt more comfortable being open with them about anything he might’ve been dealing with.
“We have different data -- like my body movement, stuff like that -- we can match it to when I'm feeling good at the plate, when I'm feeling bad at the plate,” Walker said. “I think that's definitely really helped. When I see that data, I can speak on it, and then we can try to talk in their terms.”
But that road goes two ways. Not only did Walker change the way he worked with his coaches, St. Louis’ staff altered how it talked him through any trouble that arose in order to ensure his confidence wasn’t shaken.
“There has to be a point where the player is not only feeling like he's being evaluated by you, but that you're going through it with him,” Marmol said. “Instilling confidence is a big deal, and every player receives that differently. They usually need that more when it's toughest to give from an evaluation standpoint.”
Marmol admitted he could’ve given Walker an off-day or two as he grinded through September. But, he countered, what would that teach him in the coming years with October in mind? In the eyes of both the Cardinals and Walker, the trials he’s enduring down the home stretch are far more valuable if he’s given the chance to fight his way out of them.
“I’m going to have to figure it out,” Walker said. “If you’re not always seeing the ball, you still have to play to perform. It’s not always going to be all rainbows.”
As tough as the final month has been, Walker has still been able to contribute during the Cards’ last series of 2026. He homered in Friday night’s loss, while notching a single and a stolen base Saturday. To Marmol, that effort is proof Walker is navigating this difficult stretch better than he has in the past.
“That tells you how he's handling it,” Marmol said. “He's handled it well, because those other areas are still on-point where he's competing well. It's just not going his way. I think he'll be better for it moving forward.”
Walker’s production may not mirror the prolific numbers he put up in the first half, but both he and the Cardinals know handling this adversity with a new approach -- seeing it not as an impossible hurdle but instead as a chance to grow in the bigs – will be far more productive for him in the long run.
Walker’s 2026 campaign featured the very first sustained success of his big league career. It ends with an opportunity to learn how to find it once again.
“Keep grinding,” Walker said. “There’s always light at the end of the tunnel. Just gotta find it.”