Spring training in baseball is under way! This is the time where youngsters from all around have a chance to impress their managers, coaches, and front offices of their respective teams to get them one step closer to reaching their lifetime milestone of playing in the major leagues. And with the World Baseball Classic starting on Tuesday, this will lead to more well-known players leaving for the next two weeks and leave room for the youngsters to get more playing time. While there have plenty of notable young players to keep an eye on, I don’t think there is one player on the Cardinals and possible in all of baseball that people should be keeping their eye on more than Jordan Walker.
Jordan Walker was selected as the 21st pick overall by the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round of the 2020 MLB Draft. Despite not getting a chance to play that year due to Covid, he has been in the Cardinals minor league system for the past two years and has thoroughly impressed so far. So much so, that this spring training not only gives him a chance to earn a spot in the 40-man roster for the 2023 season but even a shot at cracking the opening day roster for the Cardinals. Even though he hasn’t played a single game in Triple A yet, Walker is noted as that rare player that is incredibly skilled, talented, and overperformed in the minor leagues that he is ready to take that leap of faith into the big leagues. If the way that Jordan is playing through spring training thus far, President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak and Cardinals Manger Oliver Marmol might want to least have a discussion with one another about that at this very moment.
During spring training, Jordan Walker has played six games with a .500 BA, .500 OBP, 1.167 SLG, and 1.667 OPS. In 18 plate appearances, he has nine hits, three doubles, three home runs, and six runs batted in. All of those categories are either at or near the top of the league among qualified players (which is basically everyone at the moment). With his recent interviews before spring training even began along with his performance thus far, it’s clear that Walker is trying to force his way onto the opening day roster and make the higher ups of the Cardinals make that bold decision to their perhaps next superstar in the making.
Now, granted, we’re only a week into spring training and that’s not always the way to judge how a certain player will perform in the season. There’s plenty of players that have great springs but end up having bad seasons and vice versa, you’re mostly always facing the same three to five teams each spring, and there’s certainly a difference between playing in a crowd of a few hundred to a thousands and a stadium filled with 45,000+ fans. However, with Jordan Walker, I can’t help but make him a possible exception for and who should be more than willing to be given the benefit of any sort of doubt.
From what I’ve seen from him thus far, he comes across as a player that just always seems determined about himself and his goals. He’s not interested in becoming the next big thing but more of his own thing. He’s not looking to become someone he’s not but be exactly who he knows he is. He has inspirations but wants to use that to pave his own path towards fame and success. He will no doubt try to keep expectations about himself in check but he will certainly look to expand upon him the further his career goes. It’s that kind of dedication and the performance he has given so far that could make him the next big superstar for the Cardinals and even baseball.
Despite the Cardinals being a consistent and winning franchise for the better part of the 21st century, they are gonna be needing a new face of the franchise quite soon. Previous Cardinals legends Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina are now retired, the still Cardinal legend Adam Wainwright has announced that he will be retiring after this season, and superstars Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado aren’t getting any younger and who knows how many years of their prime that they have left. If St. Louis want to continue bringing fun, exciting, and winning baseball to their fans, they must find their next big star player to build a team around and one that fans will always want to show up to the stadium to watch play. While there have been attempts at finding that next big star player within the Cardinals internal system with mixed results in recent memory, they may have just found the guy that have been looking for with Jordan Walker.
If baseball wants to continue to grow their audience, they must have plenty of young potential superstars in the making for the current generation and even the next that will want to watch them play. Whether it’s be Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Fernando Tatis Jr. Vladimir Gurrero Jr. Ronald Acuna Jr., Julio Rodriguez, etc., each team must have at least one of those kinds of players if they want to keep their fans interested in baseball. It’s only then will you inspire an entire generation to want to either play baseball or follow it during their free time. In the case of Jordan Walker, he might just find himself to be in that group of young studs that have a potential for a long-lasting baseball career.
There are possible reasons that the Cardinals might not want to chose to call up Jordan Walker so soon. He’s only 20 years old, has not played a single game past Double A, and if service time manipulation is still a thing, no doubt they will want to keep him down there for the first two to three weeks to make sure they get that one extra year with them. And of course, we have seen plenty of top prospects in baseball not being able to live up to their expectations for the beginning of their career (Just ask the Seattle Mariners with Jarred Kelenic). Even so, top prospects like Jordan Walker don’t come around so often and when they do, they are usually able to perform to the best of their abilities and sometimes even better.
Regardless of when he will be able to make his major league debut in baseball, the future of Jordan Walker will certainly be fascinating to watch. If everything goes right, he might be the best player that the St. Louis Cardinals have drafted since Albert Pujols. And if Mark McGuire was able to convince the Cardinals to have Albert on the opening day roster back in 2001 with how good of a spring he had did, then no doubt someone on the 2023 Cardinals will want to convince the team to have Walker on the opening day roster as well. Only time and performance will tell but no doubt, Jordan Walker will certainly be one exciting young player to watch out for in 2023 and beyond.
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