3 reasons why Jordan Walker remains essential to the Cardinals' future

Their patience with Nolan Gorman paid off, and it will with Jordan Walker too

As we talked about earlier, Gorman's rookie year saw him post a .721 OPS, just slightly higher than the .718 OPS mark that Walker had in his first 20 games. Gorman had major issues to work on, like his strikeout rate and his ability to hit the high fastball, and used the offseason to make those necessary adjustments.

Walker's time in Memphis right now gives him the ability to work on his flaws while not having to worry about winning baseball games. While it's no guarantee that Walker turns out to be a star in this league, I would rather take my chances on his upside than write him off or use him as trade bait.

The beautiful part about Walker's situation is that, for all the hype surrounding him, the Cardinals don't really even "need" him to be all that he could be right now. If Walker gets another shot with the big league club this year, they already have plenty of quality big league bats to cover the majority of their lineup. Nootbaar, Goldschmidt, Gorman, Arenado, Contreras, Donovan, DeJong, and Edman all give them the lineup depth needed to be a top offense in baseball, so everything else that Walker brings is gravy.

Keep being patient with Walker. He has all of the talent in the world, great character, and is primed to make a major impact, sooner or later.