Patience is still necessary with this former Cardinals' top prospect

Let's take a trip down memory lane.

It's March 30, 2023. A new MLB season has just begun. The St. Louis Cardinals are coming off a 93-win season with a disappointing loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2022 National League Division Series. There's life yet in the team, as cornerstones Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt are coming off MVP-level seasons. Adam Wainwright is on the roster for his farewell tour.

Sprinkled in with what could become a storybook season was the ascent of one of the league's top prospects: Jordan Walker.

Walker was ranked as MLB Pipeline's fourth-best prospect heading into the 2023 season, and the 20-year-old outfielder was given the chance to start on Opening Day for the St. Louis Cardinals. Walker joined 15 other players under 21 who made their MLB debut on Opening Day. The list is filled with current and future Hall of Famers including Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer, Bryce Harper, and Juan Soto, among others.

The hype surrounding Walker was extreme. He was coming off a season in Double-A Springfield that featured him slashing .306/.388/.510 with 19 home runs and 31 doubles. He had four of the hardest-hit balls in minor-league baseball that year, and his arm strength paired with his size and relative speed made him virtually a five-tool player that franchises dream of.

Walker was drafted by the Cardinals 21st overall in the 2020 COVID-shortened MLB Draft out of Decatur High School in Georgia. St. Louis agreed to a $2.9 million signing bonus, and Walker became the club's best prospect in short order. He was drafted as a third baseman, but the trade for Nolan Arenado forced Walker to right field, a position he would have inevitably shifted to anyway.

The 2023 season was a bit of a roller coaster for Jordan Walker. He started off hot with a 12-game hit streak, the second-longest such streak for a rookie in St. Louis Cardinals' history. Walker was then demoted in late April after he cooled down, and the team was underperforming as a whole. He would then fluctuate between Triple-A -- a place he should've started the season in -- and the majors throughout the 2023 season.

Walker finished the 2023 with season with a .276/.342/.445 slash line with 16 home runs and a wRC+ of 116. That's a strong offensive season for a 21-year-old rookie. The hope would be that he could continue to grow offensively in 2024 while also making strides on the defensive side of the game.

That wasn't the case. Walker failed to elevate the ball at the major-league level in 2024, and his strikeout percentage jumped to 28.1%, a level he never reached in the minors. Those two detriments earned him a trip to Memphis again. His strikeout rate dipped in Memphis in 84 games, and he was able to hit line drives 22.9% of the time.

Jordan Walker is still too young to give up on

Jordan Walker turns only 23 years old on May 22nd this year. That's the same age as a college senior, an age where many players are drafted.

For context, Jordan Walker is younger than 33 players who are currently on MLB Pipeline's top-100 list. He's younger than JJ Wetherholt (#1 organizational prospect), Tink Hence (#2), Quinn Mathews (#3), Jimmy Crooks (#5), Tekoah Roby (#6), Chase Davis (#7), Cooper Hjerpe (#8), and Michael McGreevy (#10). Only Michael McGreevy has made his MLB debut out of that bunch, and he threw a grand total of 23 innings last year.

Are there things Jordan Walker needs to fix before he starts to look like another failed organizational prospect? Of course! He needs to hit line drives. He needs to limit his strikeouts, and he needs to get better at reads and routes defensively. Those things take time.

Jordan Walker needs to become a cornerstone player for the St. Louis Cardinals over the next five years. He was too good of a prospect to not do so. However, several other top prospects who were much more refined than Jordan Walker have come up and have not been able to compete at the highest level of baseball. That fate is still possible for the young outfielder.

Giving Jordan Walker a full run at the major-league level with new coaches like Jon Jay will bode well for him in 2025. There won't be immense amounts of pressure on him to perform, and he can make adjustments as he goes. Walker's success, however, will be key to the Cardinals' success over these next few seasons.

Steamer projects Jordan Walker to slash .255/.315/.420 with 17 home runs for a wRC+ of 106. In my mind, that won't convince me that he's ready to take the next step. Expectations should be tempered, but the organization and fans shouldn't settle for a league-average hitter with below-average defense out of Jordan Walker. He doesn't need to be special in 2025, but he should be one of the team's offensive leaders.

Patience may be necessary for just a little bit longer for former top prospect Jordan Walker. After all, he's younger than the Cardinals' latest draft pick four years after his own draft.