Jordan Walker's home runs are literally knocking over St. Louis Cardinals fans

There are very few players in the game of baseball today with the physical stature of St. Louis Cardinals' outfielder Jordan Walker. The 6'6 second-year phenom told us at Cardinals' Winter Warm-Up that he was up to 259.4 pounds (yes, he stated the 0.4), and feels a lot stronger and more explosive going into 2024. Well, if you ask a certain fan about that power and explosiveness, they'll confirm that it literally knocked him off his feet.

While taking some batting practice on Monday, Walker mashed a laser over the right fence wall, and as Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat detailed for us on Twitter, it literally knocked the kid over.

Walker has all of the tools to be a superstar in today's game. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on Monday (subscription required) that the challenge from President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak to the Cardinals' clubhouse was "Who is going to be that next generation of greatness?" donning the Birds on the Bat. While there are multiple names in that clubhouse who can take a step forward like that, Walker stands out, both literally and figuratively, above the rest.

I recently ranked the value of the Cardinals' young position players, and Walker was the clear-cut most valuable guy on that list. He doesn't turn 22 until late May, and he's already shown sustained stretches of production at the plate for the Cardinals in his rookie season.

Walker had an up-and-down month of April for St. Louis after making the Opening Day roster, resulting in a demotion to Memphis to work on lifting the ball more. After he was brought back to St. Louis at the beginning of June, Walker dropped his league-leading ground ball rate by 16.2% and posted a 120 wRC+ in the final four months of the season. Kyle Reis caught this fun stat on Twitter, but after his best friend Masyn Winn debuted on August 18th, Walker posted a 138 wRC+ and was an absolute monster at the plate.

Expectations are high for Walker as the 2024 season inches closer and closer, and with the way things are looking so far this spring, he looks ready to take the league by storm this year.