Jordan Walker joins historic St. Louis Cardinals company with latest home run

The St. Louis Cardinals have one of the deepest troves of baseball talent throughout baseball. A franchise that boasts 11 World Series Championships and dozens of Hall of Famers makes it one of the most enviable collections of players throughout Major League Baseball.

When a current player is mentioned among the likes of these legends, people's ears perk up. Jordan Walker has done just that at the start of his resurgent year.

Jordan Walker's seventh home run in 15 games places him amongst the likes of Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, and Mark McGwire in St. Louis Cardinals lore.

Jordan Walker slugged a home to deep left field during Sunday afternoon's 9-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox. This was his sixth home run in his last eight games and his seventh on the year. Jordan Walker hit only six home runs throughout the 2025 season. He's already hit seven home runs in only 15 games this year.

That last tidbit places him with elite Cardinals company.

Only Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen have hit more home runs in the team's first 15 games of a season in Cardinals' history. Walker's seventh long ball put him in a tie for the third-most with Mark McGwire.

Pujols hit 10 home runs in the Cardinals' first 15 games of the 2006 season. Pujols would go on to hit 49 home runs in 2006 and finish second in National League MVP voting.

Scott Rolen's 2004 season was hands down the best of his career. He would finish the season with 34 home runs and finish fourth in NL MVP voting.

Mark McGwire's 1998 season was certainly one for the record books, as he set the home run record that year with 70 long balls. McGwire, like Pujols, finished second in NL MVP voting.

Now, I'm not saying Jordan Walker is going to hit 70 home runs (though he is on pace for that mark now). I'm also not saying he'll hit 49 or even 34 home runs, but the Jordan Walker we're seeing 10% of the way through the year is a vastly different version than the one Cardinals fans have become accustomed to over the last two years.

Walker's seven home runs lead all of Major League Baseball. He's slashing .327/.393/.745 for a 1.138 OPS. He's still walking at a reasonably high rate, but as long as the power is there, fans won't complain about strikeout rates around 28%.

Not only has Walker been crushing it at the plate, he's also turned into a respectable defender in right field. He grades out as a plus defender according to Defensive Runs Saved (+2 DRS) and Fielding Run Value (+1 FRV), and Outs Above Average sees him as a neutral defender in the corner. He's also been a plus runner with an average sprint speed of 28.9 MPH, tenth in the league.

Jordan Walker breaking out is perhaps the best thing the Cardinals could have hoped for this year. It's still early, but most signs point to this power surge and offensive output being mostly sustainable. Even if Walker finished the year with an OPS around .850 and 25 home runs, that will be a massive improvement over his career thus far.

At this point, we're all rooting for Jordan Walker to find sustained success.