Jordan Walker is a tough subject for Cardinals fans 2024-2025. The outfield, outside of stalwart Lars Nootbaar, had been a barren place. Jordan Walker was to at least partially fill the void from the lack of reinforcements after the tragic death of Oscar Taveras. He impressed with the bat as a rookie, and then went missing in action 2024 – 2025. Walker was expected to do much fron the begining.
Jordan Walker was born in Stone Mountain, GA in 2002. Jordan was selected 21st overall in the 2020 draft and is now 24 years old, signed through 2026. What will happen is anyone’s guess.
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Accolades and Accomplishments
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Selected in the first round of the 2020 MLB draft, 21st overall
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1st player born in 2002 to debut in MLB, making the 2023 Opening Day roster at under 21 years of age
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only Albert Pujols and Joe Medwick hit more home runs in Cardinals franchise history than Jordan Walker during his rookie age 21 season!
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Tallied the first ever Cardinals hit outside of north America, in London vs the Cubs on June 24, 2023!
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the Cardinals top prospect 2022-2023
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5 hits September 1st, 2024 vs the Yankees
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17 game hitting streak June 6th through 29th in 2023
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Home Run Derby Champion 2026
After a promising rookie season in 2023 where Walker had a line of .787 OPS and 16 HR in 117 games, while still learning the ropes in right fielder, Jordan began to tank in 2024 where he spent a bulk of the season at AAA and was a below average MLB player over 51 games.
That was not the low, however. In 2025 Jordan Walker would knock through his floor and find himself the worst MLB player with at least 350 PA, worth -1.3 fWAR. There were five worse players somehow, with less plate appearances than Walker. What a year!
Jordan Walker has now matched his total plate appearances of last season, where he was unworthy of playing time. Over that same amount of playing time, it is astonishing to report that Jordan Walker is worth 4 more WAR than last season, already!
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Walker’s 143 wRC+ and .380 wOBA are in the top 15 of MLB players, and are the best ratings for hitting among the Cardinals. His 22 home runs is tied with Ohtani crammed into an expanded top 10 MLB home run hitters. And no one really saw this coming. Not this big of a turnaround. The only question is if Jordan will steal 20 bases this year.
Jordan Walker is no longer a liability to strike out, and is the Major League leader in RBI. The 6’ 6” 24 year old has so much history ahead of him, a legend in the making. After just over half of a miraculous turnaround season, Jordan Walker’s career numbers are now above average as far as wRC+ and WAR go.
A work in progress 2026
courtesy baseball savant / statcast info
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I think Walker should just let what he is doing this year ride, but if anything he could work on his chase and whiff rates, and improve on striking out, while taking a few more walks. Post-All Star Break tweaks! Of just keep doing what you’re doing…
1992 in Music (Heavy Metal Edition)
As I work my way through the years, researching albums I have both heard and not heard, I have found myself stuck in the year 1992. This third part covering over 50 albums total, will sum up my research and experience in 1993 music releases. In past weeks, i have covered 15 albums a week, 30 albums total, which excluded heavy metal music. But now’s the time to unleash the fury that is heavy metal 1992.
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Sleep – ‘Holy Mountain’ one of the best heavy metal albums of all time, despite it being a vintage throwback to 70’s Sabbath… it is done so well on every level that it is my heavy metal album of 1992. The precursor to bands High On Fire and OM, and Sleep’s best album by several light years.
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Melvins – ’name redacted’ (excerpt from album) the Melvins most sludgy album of all and perhaps their most exemplary release, named after a popular cleaning product that made them remove the name from the release, or sometimes calling it “Lice All” …full of epic heaviness and avalanches of sound, perhaps my favorite Melvins of all!
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Nocturnus – ‘Thresholds’ one of those bands that were so ahead of their time but made it sound classic at the same time, defining a new subgenre: progressive death metal with keyboards! Masterpiece.
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Eyehategod – ‘In The Name of Suffering’ New Orleans legends melding roasted southern Black Sabbath sounds with hardcore punk and whatever you want to call what the Melvins did in the late 80’s. I find this more punk than metal, but it’s up to the ear of the beholder. Some call it sludge.
As you can tell, death metal was all the rage in 1992. What an absolutely stacked year full of unending amounts of awesomeness. I ran out of time this week, so I couldn’t really describe all of that, but you just have to hear it anyway. Nothing out there like heavy metal from 1992.
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Thanks for reading! I wish I had more this week but I have been busy watching the home run derby and all star game for the first time in years!
