Cardinals' Jordan Walker continues revenge season with MLB Network honor

The St. Louis Cardinals have been a surprise to the entire league, sitting well above .500 on the year, as they apparently missed the memo that this season was supposed to be a rebuild. Now that the national media is taking notice of their great start to the year, the Cardinal lineup that was full of players that only we fans knew, some of those guys are becoming household names across the country. While JJ Wetherholt has gotten plenty of deserved attention, Jordan Walker has continued to find his name in the national headlines, most recently as an MVP candidate.

Coming into Spring Training, outfielder Jordan Walker was one of the most polarizing players among fans, with some wanting him in the minors, others understanding he needed to play in the bigs, while even a small percentage thought he should be out of the organization altogether. He struggled during spring, raising concern levels, but Walker answered plenty of questions with his scorching first month. After hitting everything pitchers threw at him, he fell into a mini slump, but the new Walker was able to snap out of that and keep hitting like he did when he was a top prospect in all of baseball.

Jordan Walker has gone from castoff to 2026 MVP candidate in fewer than 40 games.

Now that we are approaching the 40-game mark, it is close to time to throw away the small sample size argument and realize that what we are seeing from Jordan Walker is nearing reality. While expecting an OPS approaching 1.000 and a wRC+ putting him in elite company may be a little overkill, seeing a full season with above league-average offense should not feel like a fairy tale at this point. With how well he has been playing thus far, it should not be out of the question that Walker should be one of the Cardinals' All-Star game representatives, adding even more flair to his resurrection season. Even better than a spot on the Midsummer Classic roster, MLB Network analyst, WBC Team USA manager, and former Cardinal Mark DeRosa took it further and included Walker in his MVP candidate list.

DeRosa had his top five MVP candidates liste on MLB Network this week, and while the start of the list had some familiar (read: boring) names, the final two included Diamondbacks breakout star Ildemaro Vargas in fourth and then the revitalized Jordan Walker rounding out the list. Regardless of when or where on this list he was, being included in any type of MVP conversation is already a major win for Walker and the organization. If he can continue even 80% of what he has done to begin the season, it takes some stress away from Chaim Bloom as he figures out which spots on the roster need support. With second base, shortstop, first base, and wherever Ivan Herrera is going to be locked up, Walker locking down right field could make this rebuild go faster than anyone could have imagined.

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