JUPITER, Fla. — Major League Baseball has a way of eating its young. Initial success gets recognized and celebrated, but it also gets plotted and schemed against. The Cardinals and Jordan Walker know what’s coming.
After a commendable level of success in his rookie season, particularly at the plate, Walker will be a budding star who opposing pitchers can’t wait to stifle. The 6-foot-6, 255-pound right-handed hitting slugger presents an unmistakable target.
Walker, 21, enters this spring having made the jump from the big leagues a year ago. He batted .276 with a .342 on-base percentage, a .445 slugging percentage, 16 home runs and 51 RBIs in 117 games in 2023. Along the way, he became one of five Cardinals rookies (since 1900) with three hitting streaks of at least 10 games. The only other one to do it at the age of 21 or younger was franchise icon Albert Pujols.
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What sort of grandiose offensive goals has Walker made his aim for his second season?
“Basically, as simple as I can make it: I want to drive the gaps more consistently,†Walker said.
Sorry if you were expecting something a bit chestier from the former top prospect and projected starting right fielder. Walker has no intention of getting too far out in front of himself in either a figurative or literal sense.
Spring training workouts and games will serve as a lab as Walker searches for the right adjustments to keep him ahead of his opposition.
“You want to do well, but right now, what I’m really focused on is where my body is getting ready to hit, how I’m preparing to hit the ball and how I’m finishing more than the outcome,†Walker said. “Because I want to make sure my body is really consistent. I think that consistency is going to be key for me to do what I really want to do during the season.â€
Ready for league’s adjustments
Walker spent the majority of his offseason in Jupiter, training at the Cardinals complex. Defensive guru Jose Oquendo drilled outfield fundamentals on a daily basis with Walker. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol has expressed confidence that Walker will show significant improvement in the outfield. Marmol expects Walker to play with an increased confidence and a high comfort level, as he did as last season progressed.
Offensively, the strides the Cardinals want Walker to make are based on how they expect pitchers to attack Walker.
“He’s been really diligent with staying more closed, not spinning as much and kind of coming around the ball pull-side, being able to stay on the pitch on the outer half the other way and hit that ball with more authority,†Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said.
“This guy has got unbelievable power. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. But he’s been working with (hitting coach) Turner (Ward) on just staying on the baseball a little bit more.â€
Marmol acknowledged the adjustment Walker is making “won’t happen overnight,†but they believe it will benefit him as a hitter.
The heat charts don’t lie. Walker’s batting average, expected batting average, slugging percentage, expected slugging percentage, barrel rate and hard-hit percentage all show that he’s less dangerous when facing pitches away from him.
Cardinals super-utility player Brendan Donovan went through his own offseason of adjusting a year ago. He came into last spring training with a new bat, a new stance and a focus on generating more force in his swing.
Donovan spent this offseason rehabbing from elbow surgery at the Cardinals facility. That allowed him to serve as Walker’s sounding board, adviser and sometimes critic. During last month’s Winter Warm-up at Busch Stadium, Walker described Donovan as almost another hitting coach.
“Baseball is adjustments,†Donovan said. “The league is adjusting. They will make adjustments from pitch to pitch, from game to game. You’ll see them one week, then the next week, it will be a completely different attack plan.
“So when people ask me, I just try to be as honest as possible and just tell them the adjustments that I went through. The only way that I learned is through my own failures. If I can help someone — maybe in the future — learn from some of my failures, I think that’s good.â€
Donovan has had a front-row seat for Walker’s quest to prepare for his second season in the big leagues, and Donovan has been impressed by the attention to detail he’s seen from Walker.
“As a young a player, to move down here and be around the complex is impressive,†Donovan said. “First off, that shows that he’s serious. I was very proud of him, very excited for him to be down here.
“To see him out here working on his defense, doing his agilities, hitting, throwing, to me it shows that he’s doing all the right things. I think he looks fantastic. I think he looks strong as ever. I want some of his power, but I think we all do.â€
Experimenting this spring
In batting practice sessions and live at-bats so far in camp, Walker has shown a slightly different batting stance. He’s still standing upright, but his feet aren’t as close together. Instead, he’s operating out of a wider base. His body position isn’t as opened up toward the pitcher as it was last season.
Last season, Walker had a tendency to collapse on his backside during a swing. His back leg regularly came close to touching the ground as he corkscrewed himself around on his follow through.
He’s so big and strong that at times he still muscled inside pitches into the left field stands, but it cost him on outside pitches as he found himself getting out in front too often and losing the ability to drive the ball.
“I got a few last year where it was just I happened to stay back on it,†Walker said. “But I want to be more consistent there in my opinion. So that’s something I’m working on right now.â€
Walker will continue experimenting with minor adjustments throughout the swing. He’s still trying to figure out just how closed off he should be in his stance. Thursday in a pair of live at-bats against Sonny Gray, he twice struck out swinging.
Walker stressed that spring training is the time for him to “play with†different tweaks so he can find what works and what doesn’t.
“That’s why I’m making these adjustments, to try and get better and driving that ball away a little bit more,†Walker said. “I think I’m getting really good input right now. Now, it’s just getting a consistent feel for what it feels like and where I should be set.â€
A lot had been made last year about the Cardinals wanting Walker to get the ball in the air more regularly, even though Walker was hitting the ball hard consistently.
Walker said his conversations with Ward and assistant hitting coach Brandon Allen haven’t been about “launch angle.†They’ve simply been Walker letting them know what he feels when he’s driving the ball versus rolling it over and them communicating what they see when he’s driving the ball versus rolling over and them all working to eliminate those instances when he’s unable to drive the ball.
“Also, something I learned is that sometimes the stuff that worked in the minor leagues didn’t work in the major leagues as well,†Walker said. “So last spring training, what I was comfortable with and didn’t really want to change might’ve gotten exposed a little bit in MLB. That’s why I feel like some of these adjustments are going to be really beneficial for me, and spring training is the best time to try to lock that in so right when the season starts I’m ready to go.â€