MLB Network host's outlandish Jordan Walker take is riling up Cardinals fans

Alright, the Jordan Walker conversation is getting out of control.

Yes, the St. Louis Cardinals deserve flack for how his development has been handled, but in recent weeks, speculation has grown on whether or not he's already the next Cardinals' prospect to become a "bust", and wild trade rumors have been thrown around like he's an expendable asset. The latest absurd take came from Cardinals fan and MLB Network host Greg Amsinger on his weekly appearance with 101 ESPN's "The Opening Drive".

If you have not listened to the clip above, Amsinger told the morning show that his colleges at MLB Network, specifically the former players, believe the Cardinals have "screwed him up", citing the Cardinals' desire for Walker to "launch the ball" and access his power as the reasons he has struggled this season. He went on to talk about how big-bodied MLB greats like Frank Thomas, Jermaine Dye, and Matt Holliday were all "proof" about how the Cardinals' should have just left Walker alone.

I have a lot to say regarding this conversation. The oversimplification of Walker's struggles and what the Cardinals have asked him to do in order to become the player we hope he will be is just out of control, and for as much as the Cardinals have been at fault for Walker's struggles as of late, I think the "issues" people are pointing to are just a small part of the equation at best, and often times are actually misunderstandings of what has been going on.

Why the Jordan Walker panic discourse has gone way too far

I want to start by acknowledging my own mistakes when it comes to my analysis of Jordan Walker.

The Cardinals shoulder the blame for ultimately having Walker on their Opening Day roster in 2023, but myself, and many of the people who are criticizing their handling of Walker now, were the very people shouting for Walker to make the big league roster, when many people who watched Walker day in and day out at the minor league level were asking for more patience regarding his development.

Then Walker came out and had his historic hit streak to begin the year, but by April 26th, the Cardinals had decided to demote Walker to Triple-A, and at the time, Walker had an abysmal 60.4% ground ball rate. Walker had clear issues with not just lifting the ball but also swing selection, consistently chasing at or making contact with bad pitches that did not allow him to do damage and instead led to ground ball after ground ball.

Brandon Kiley of 101 ESPN had an excellent response to Amsinger's comments during "BK and Ferrario" in the afternoon, and I think it's worth a listen below.

People love to talk about how guys like Tony Gwynn and Ted Williams never talked about launch angle or the advanced metrics of today, but just because they didn't have the language or numbers for that in the 90s or in years prior, doesn't mean that the great hitters of the past didn't know the obvious - line drives and hard hit fly balls are much better outcomes than a ground ball to the shortstop or second baseman. It's not rocket science.

Kiley made a great point about how the guys that Amsinger mentioned weren't on the ground like Walker was. Frank Thomas had an extremely low 25% ground ball rate, and while Holliday's was higher at 45%, neither guy was doing what Walker was doing. When you have a .353 BABIP like Walker had during that first month of big league action, you can get away with it for a bit, but even though he had a .274 batting average when he was demoted, he was still graded out as a below league-average hitter with just a 98 wRC+ in his first 78 plate appearances.

What's also being missed by even lingering on Amsigner's point as much as I have is that the real issue isn't that Walker isn't hitting enough fly balls, it's that what he was doing when he was in St. Louis at the start of the 2023 season and the beginning of the 2024 season did not lead to results. If you combine Walker's numbers from March/April of 2023 and 2024, he posted a .221/.283/.336 slash line with a 6.2% walk rate, 26.2% strikeout rate, and 73 wRC+ with a measly 11.6% line drive rate and 55.8% ground ball rate. That's just not going to cut it.

John Mozeliak has been pretty upfront about what he's hoping to see from Walker in Memphis. When he was asked by KMOX's Tom Ackerman what they are hoping to see from Walker, Mozeliak did not linger on launch angle or fly balls or whatever, he simply said they need to see production out of Walker.

Since being demoted to Memphis again this season, things have not gone well for Walker. In 245 plate appearances, the 22-year-old is slashing .251/.314/.390 with just four home runs. That is not the kind of production you need to see from a future star in your lineup. He's not ready to contribute at the big league level right now.

While I could have stopped and said this multiple times already, I'm going to do so now. Walker is 22 years old. 22. Again, I'm going to acknowledge how guilty I have been of this too, but why are we so quick to freak out and right off a 22-year-old like Walker? I know Cardinals' fans have PTPHD (post-traumatic prospect-hype disorder) from Dylan Carlson and Mozeliak's confidence that he was their best prospect since Albert Pujols and Oscar Taveras, but Walker is a different level of talent than Carlson ever was, and honestly, it still wasn't fair to put his name in conversations with Pujols and Taveras while he was still just 20 years old.

Also, have we just forgotten already how stinking good Walker was once he was recalled to St. Louis after getting into a groove in Memphis last season? Walker finished the season 16% above league average as a hitter as a 21-year-old, and if you look at his numbers after being brought back to St. Louis, you'll see that Walker was 20% above league average after making his adjustments. You read that right. Jordan Walker was the youngest player in Major League Baseball on an Opening Day roster in 2023, and he was 20% better than league average at the plate in his final 97 games (387 plate appearances) in St. Louis.

During the 2023 season, Kyle Schwarber, Bobby Witt Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., and so many other hitters we would consider "great" in today's game posted wRC+ numbers lower than 120 throughout the course of the season. It takes a special talent to do what Walker was doing at such a young age.

There is a lot of really insightful work out there on Jordan Walker's struggles and what needs to happen for him to maximize his potential and become and not only regain that form from June 2023 to the end of the season but soar past that as well. Nate Schwartz, who writes for Pitcher List, wrote a great piece titled "Jordan Walker's Early Season Struggles Through the Lens of Other Stars" that I highly recommend checking out.

In his piece, Schwartz broke down the similar nature of Walker's struggles to that of big-name bats Aaron Judge and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and without giving away the analysis from his story, there's so much potential that Walker can tap into not only if he starts lifting the ball more, but if he also does a better job of knowing which pitches to swing at.

I messaged Schwartz yesterday when I started working on this piece (go follow him on Twitter/X @_nateschwartz), and I thought he made a really good point when he said that Walker had reverted back to prospect status in his eyes this year. Instead of looking to get Walker back to St. Louis as quickly as possible, all the Cardinals should be focused on (and it sounds like that is how they are approaching this) is Walker's development. He's still a young player even for the Triple-A level, and while the Cardinals cannot change the mistakes they've made with Walker, all they can do is do right by him now.

I think Walker's story so far is also a great reminder to all of us that player development is not linear. Sure, sometimes a player just keeps getting better and better and produces more and more year by year, but most of the time, the game of baseball is far too difficult for that. Players struggle, they go through slumps, and they even have down years. Look around Major League Baseball this year. Young stars like Corbin Carroll and Bo Bichette are among the bottom 10 qualified hitters in baseball. Other notable stars like Julio Rodriguez, Adolis Garcia, and Marcus Semien are struggling as well.

To circle back to the original point of this conversation, I just think it is a massive overreaction by Amsinger and the former players he talks to at MLB Network to say the Cardinals have messed up Jordan Walker and he needs to go elsewhere to succeed. Have they contributed to his issues? Of course. But the player comparisons Amsinger made and acting like if Walker just kept doing what he was doing he'd become like those great bats is just not true in my eyes, and more importantly, in the eyes of people way smarter than me.

Walker has had real issues in his game dating back to Spring Training of 2023 that needed to be worked on before he had to step onto the biggest stage, especially with all of the pressure that the organization, fan base, and media put on his shoulders. Without addressing the real holes in his offensive profile, Walker is not going to become anywhere near the player we hope and dream he'll still become.

Again, this is by no means supposed to be a "pile on Walker's struggles piece". If anything, I hope this is a reminder to all of us to be more patient with young talent coming through the Cardinals' system. We saw it play out again this year with the speedy Victor Scott II, who was clearly overmatched at the big league level but was rushed like Walker was.

Maybe the next time a player is producing at a high level in the minor leagues and is not called up, we should pause and remember that the talent gap between Triple-A and Major League Baseball is as wide as it has ever been.

I still believe Jordan Walker is going to become a special player. Will he get to prove that in St. Louis this year? That remains to be seen. But personally, I'm okay waiting as long as it takes. Let the guy figure things out in Memphis, and when the time comes, he'll get his opportunity again with the Cardinals. And next time he gets that shot, I have a feeling he'll run with it and never look back.