What the Cardinals have done with Jordan Walker is organizational malpractice

He's back from Memphis, but won't be starting every day.

The St. Louis Cardinals don’t do well with top prospects. The scouts find them in gold wrapping paper, but they’re dropped off at the used store a few years after making it to the bigs. Sure, they find a gem in the pile of could-be talents like Masyn Winn and a decent hitter in Alec Burleson, but they strike out on fellas like Dylan Carlson and countless others. In the case of Jordan Walker, they’re well on their way to messing things up again. There’s a problem in the transformation of talent found and talent soaked for all its worth, another occasion of the Cardinals being unable to properly develop a player.

After sending him down on April 24 for the second year in a row, the Cardinals let Walker stew in the minors for months working on his swing, or seeing if he’ll become the hitter their spreadsheets suggest. You know, that tactic the team likes to do where they change a hitter’s approach. Never mind the fact that the approach got him to where he is; the Cardinals just think they know better. Walker was brought back up this week with the injury of Matt Carpenter, and all signs pointed to him starting the bulk of playing time in the remaining games.

It’s not a distant memory to recall that Walker was the team’s best hitter down the stretch last year, improving mightily after the All Star Break and into August and September when higher paid Birds were flunking out. With a 60-61 team sinking farther and farther out of playoff contention as the dog days of summer take their own last turn around the bases and those same team stars failing to produce, starting him every day would be basic, “baseball for dummies” idealism, right?

Oli Marmol and the team seem to think not, telling the media yesterday that he will be a platoon starter. Walker will help the team against left-handed starters, even if the team only faces one in the next week. Someone could stand up and tell Marmol that Walker’s splits versus right-handed hitters is just as strong as it is versus lefties.

Once again, this team is clueless with young players. If they get one right, it’s a stroke of luck. Credit Winn with the mind power of a Jedi for maintaining his own swing and potential amid the tumbling dice of Cardinals coaching. Walker is suffering from these fools, and it has to be doing a number on the kid.

It’s easy to forget these are young men who don’t exactly have a full grip on the world and its rigors just yet. Their life has been surrounded, consumed, and sealed by a game--one that can drive them nuts or to the promised land. Walker went down to Memphis, and worked on his swing in order to get it to a place where he was driving the baseball in the air for home runs again. In the last couple of weeks, he was doing just that. It’s quite a compliment for hard work finished to ride the bench for consecutive nights. How are we to see all the work done since late April if he’s on a bench? Coming back from Auto Zone Park in Memphis to meet the team in Cincinnati’s small, HR-friendly sandbox ballpark this week seemed like a match made in heaven.

Only it’s already been anything but a good time for Walker. In the three game sweep to the Reds, he started one game and drew a walk. Wednesday night, he pinch-hit and collected a hit. That’s it. Imagine what’s swirling around in that head of his right now, as Thursday stretches its legs into the afternoon towards another game tonight. Nolan Gorman can dip below .200 while playing a semi-average second base and striking out a crap ton, but Walker only gets lefties.

It makes no sense. Will Walker be just another prospect that St. Louis is letting waste away? It’s hard to say that just yet, but check in next year. He’s only 22 years old, but what stops the team from sending him down again in 2025 after a slump. Maybe… thinking out loud here from my University City work lunch hub, they should just let him start and see where the bat takes them.

With a team sinking and his splits showing effectiveness towards righties and lefties, even a plumbing supplies delivery driver can see what’s best. Why can’t a professional manager and front office figure it out?! Answering questions, Marmol sounded like a John Mozeliak puppet was jammed halfway up his ass while trying to explain the Walker initiative. Damn, if only the late Joe Strauss was still around to knock out the tripod of stupidity with a scolding article. It’s so easy to see the bullseye and hit it with a shitty deer rifle right now. It’s not that current columnists aren’t hitting the nail on the head; Joe just did it differently.

Making matters worse, Mozeliak said last week that if Walker was brought up, he needed to play a lot. So, either the message isn’t received, or it’s a big pile of bullshit. If Walker is supposed to be this next great thing and he corrected a flaw in his swing, then he needs to play. The organization just looks stupid for calling him up and then making that statement to the media.

It makes me miss the Walt Jocketty and Tony La Russa days, where there was a decent flow of transparency. They weren’t a perfect group, but they didn’t have these kind of flubs so often. They had issues with developing young pitchers, but players came up and played if there was a worth to their name.

Walker sits idly as the team figures out his path in Year 2. They’re as clueless as the team’s overall playoff ambition, and on the cusp of alienating another young slugger’s mind. I’d simply tell Walker to hit more line drives. Don’t overdo it, but don’t reroute his entire hitting mentality. It’s hard to miss the fact that the team crawled inside Carlson’s head during his time here, telling him how to play and thus affecting his play.

If you’re going to compare him to Pujols (bad idea, Mo), then treat him halfway like Albert and turn him loose. Anything else would be uncivilized and look dumb.

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