5 puzzling decisions by the St. Louis Cardinals in the past 2 years

Puzzling decision #4: Promoting Jordan Walker to be a platoon hitter.

I went into greater detail on this decision here, but I wanted to shine a different light on the situation. Jordan Walker was demoted to Triple-A to work on his swing path and generate power more effectively. After a couple of months of figuring it out, Walker began showing progress in early August.

As of August 7th, Walker was hitting .391/.440/.652 with three doubles and a home run. Fans were overjoyed to hear that Walker would be promoted, but his role on the team left them dejected. Rather than play every day in the majors following a successful turnaround to start the month. However, he was relegated to a bench role strictly as a platoon bat.

At the time, outfielder Tommy Pham was still playing well, so rather than keeping Pham as a reserve player for left-handed pitchers, Walker was given the platoon role. This decision was contrary to the front office's whims, as President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak instead wanted Walker to play every day.

"My philosophy has always been if you're a young player, you need to play," said Mozeliak. "I always cringe at the idea of someone who's 22 years old sitting on the bench." Meanwhile, Marmol made it clear that he intended to use Walker as a bench bat primarily for left-handed pitchers.

Walker was optioned eight days after being recalled on August 12th. He was then once again recalled on August 30th. The yo-yoing of the team's former top prospect has been detrimental to his development, and it's left fans befuddled and bewildered.