We've seen this story before with Jordan Walker. He was arguably the most hyped prospect in baseball when he broke camp with the Cardinals last season, only to earn a trip back to the minors when he disappointed in April. When he made his return, he was much better, hitting .277/.346/.455 through the remainder of the season, and entered 2024, again, with quite a bit of hype.
And he flopped. Again. Even worse this time, hitting just .155/.239/.259 with a 27% strikeout rate before getting sent down, yet again, before the end of the season's first month.
And he wasn't even all that good in Triple-A after being sent down, hitting .257/.321/.426 with a manageable 19% strikeout rate, but also with just nine homers. So, why should we be excited that he's getting recalled yet again, as the team announced Monday?
Well, let's start with this: Walker is still just 22 years old. His precociousness will matter less the more experience he gets, to be clear, but it is worth keeping in mind how incredibly young Walker is. He was born on May 22, 2002, which makes him just three months younger, almost to the day, than No. 1 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, Travis Bazzana. Walker has been around for a while and he's disappointed us more than once now, but most prospects are still, y'know, prospects at his age. It's way too early to be over Walker.
And I'll also note that, while it has mostly been an underwhelming season for Walker in Triple-A, full of the same limitations that have tripped him up in the majors – too much hard contact hit to the wrong places, often right at waiting and eager infielders – he's showing signs of figuring that out. Let's look at some key metrics, both for his season as a whole at Triple-A and then over the past 15 games, a stretch during which he has hit five of his nine homers:
Season overall
91.2 mph average exit velocity, 10.2% barrel rate, 11.8% pulled line drive/flyball rate
Since July 25:
91.5 mph average exit velocity, 17.6% barrel rate, 15.7% pulled line drive/flyball rate
That's an arbitrary endpoint, of course, and it might just be a hot streak, but you can certainly see why the Cardinals would be looking to add Walker at this exact moment, despite his underwhelming overall numbers. If Walker were figuring things out, this is exactly what you would want to see from a player with obvious talent who just hasn't figured out how to optimize his swing.
It's not even clear if Walker is going to have an everyday role in a crowded Cardinals outfield, though if they're calling him up, you have to think it'll be to play pretty regularly – his development has already been rocky enough that I would be surprised if they are just calling him up to be a lefty-masher for the stretch run. Which is why I can hardly declare Walker as a must-add player for Fantasy.
But he's definitely a "can-add" and possibly even a "should-add." The likeliest outcome might be that Walker flops again, or else is just disappointing in a part-time role. But when you have an opportunity to bet on a player this young, with this much talent, I think it makes sense to drop someone from your bench to add them. Just in case this is when he figures it out.
