Cardinals legend praises Jordan Walker with comparison to MVP frontrunner

With the expectation that the 2026 St. Louis Cardinals season was going to be a painful rebuild, much of the preseason fan excitement rallied around rookie JJ Wetherholt and what he would mean for the team's future. While Wetherholt is what we expected and then some, fans have shifted their focus from just one player to October as the Cardinals hover near the top of the standings 40 games in.

The success is due in no small part to the rookie second baseman, but Jordan Walker's resurgence is one of the best stories in baseball, and the outfielder continues to see well-deserved praise thrown his way. Tamar Sher from KMOX had a recent conversation with Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith, who has hopes that Jordan Walker can be on the same trajectory as superstar Aaron Judge.

Jordan Walker becoming a force in the middle of the lineup is what we all hoped for when he rolled through the minor leagues as a 19 and 20-year-old before making his big league debut at just 21. The struggles came fast for Walker over his first three seasons in the majors, leading to many this offseason wanting him to be demoted or the ever-popular call for a DFA from those who do not know what that actually entails.

Luckily, Chaim Bloom disagreed with Cardinal Nation in that sentiment and stuck with Walker as the everyday outfield option in this fact-finding year. Walker has responded to the challenge by putting up an MVP start to the year, causing Cardinal Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith to compare him to another perennial MVP candidate and one of the best sluggers in league history.

Jordan Walker's power display is bringing renewed excitement about his future potential

When Smith brings up Judge, it is for more than just physical stature as both the Yankee and Cardinal outfielders are beasts of humans. While it took a little bit of time for Judge to grow into the offensive force he has consistently been over the past 5+ years, he did so after being in the bigs for more than four seasons. To be fair though, Judge never struggled at the level that Walker did, where the St. Louis outfielder ranked among the worst hitters in baseball but Judge did have seasons that measured as just okay when compared to his current standards.

Now, Judge is a yearly threat to mash more than 50 homers and has been named the AL MVP in three of the past four seasons with historic numbers and OPS+ that shows he is more than double the value of the average major league hitter. Walker has not yet reached that level of performance, but his 171 OPS+ over the first 40 games this year is nearly 100 points higher than his career average.

This is even more intriguing for the future when we remember that Walker is still just 24 years old and is showing a willingness to continue getting better. When he was a prospect, outlets pegged Walker as at least a four-tool player, but beyond the bat, the outfielder is also putting up elite numbers on the defensive side, something that Aaron Judge never did.

It is still early in Walker's career, but if this trajectory continues, Cardinal Nation will owe him and Bloom an apology when we get his red jacket ready for his induction into the team's Hall of Fame.

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