Jordan Walker's powerful start has Cardinals fans clinging to hope once again

Jordan Walker has struggled in his first two-plus years in the majors. The former top-10 prospect in baseball has a career slash line of .239/.303/.378 for a .681 OPS. He has a career strikeout rate of 26.7%. He's generally hit the ball hard, but he has hit it into the ground 47.9% of the time for his career.

The 2026 season is a pivotal one for both Walker and the St. Louis Cardinals, and he's already showing improvements.

It's only been three games, but St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker is showing big strides already in turning over a new leaf.

Through three games, Walker is slashing .400/.500/.900 with two walks, one strikeout, and a home run. Three of his four hits have been extra-base hits, and he's driven in three runners. He appears to be a new man at the plate.

On Sunday afternoon in the series finale, Walker hit a double that had a recorded exit velocity of 114.9 MPH. This was the eighth-hardest-hit batted ball by Walker in his major-league career; the other seven were all groundballs. Walker has already recorded eight batted balls with an exit velocity of 95 MPH or higher this year through only three games. Five of those eight hard-hit balls were either in the air or a line drive, a notable change from his recent past.

He had a total of 119 hard-hit balls last year in 111 games.

Walker is currently the Cardinals' leader in wRC+ after just three games (289 wRC+).

Perhaps the most noteworthy difference in Walker's game this year isn't hit power but rather his pitch selection. Prior to his home run in Sunday's game, Walker had seen a healthy amount of pitches in the game. The Tampa Bay Rays adjusted to him being aggressive on fastballs and opted to throw him changeups instead. Ironically, Walker homered on a changeup down in the zone by waiting on it and adjusting based on the Rays' game plan for him.

After the game, Walker spoke about his offseason workouts with various coaches to get his swing right. "It's nice the effort that I put with Casey (Chenoweth) and (Brant Brown) in the offseason showed today. I kind of want to take it to the rest of the season," said Walker. "I felt pretty good today. There were some pitches I was off the timing with, but getting the ball across and being able to hit is what I was looking forward to. Being able to do that, it's a green light for now."

While there are still plenty of games left in the season, it is encouraging to see Walker hit the ball hard and hit it in the air. Jordan Walker is still only 23 years old. The 6-foot-six outfielder is a physical specimen who has the prospect track record to make organizations drool. The early returns on Walker's swing and approach at the plate have been positive. Hopefully, he can continue this hot streak and become similar to the player we all thought he could be four years ago.