Cardinals Rising Star Compared To Ex-Brewers Fan Favorite Amid Recent Injury Woes

The former St. Louis top prospect is struggling to stay consistent and healthy

2010: Milwaukee Brewers' Rickie Weeks celebrates with Prince Fielder after hitting a homerun in the 7th inning at Miller Park. The patch on Fielder commemorates the Brewers 40th anniversary. Brewers24 Spt Sieu 9 | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel files, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via Imagn Content Services, LLC

The St. Louis Cardinals will need all the help they can get if they hope to dethrone the Milwaukee Brewers at the top of the National League Central this season.

After enduring several injuries from key players such as Lars Nootbaar, Willson Contreras and Steven Matz in 2024, the Cardinals are looking forward to having a relatively healthy roster heading into this upcoming season.

However, there's one young St. Louis slugger fighting for a starting position who needs to avoid spending time on the injured list this year or he could be headed for a similarly underwhelming career as a former Milwaukee Brewers fan favorite.

"I’ll be waiting for the Jordan Walker breakout when he comes back from his knee injury, but I’m starting to worry his name rhymes with 'Rickie Weeks,'" The Athletic's Keith Law wrote Wednesday when predicting potential breakout candidates for 2025.

Walker, who is currently sidelined due to an injured left knee, is a former first-round draft pick projected to be a power hitter for the Cardinals, similarly to Weeks during his tenure with the division-foe Brewers.

Weeks logged 148 home runs throughout his 11 seasons spent playing for the Brewers but throughout his time in Milwaukee, the All-Star slugger struggled to stay healthy and was inconsistent with his offensive production.

Much like Weeks, Walker showed early signs of dominance when he logged 16 home runs and 51 RBIs during his rookie year in 2023. Unfortunately, the homegrown Cardinals star failed to replicate his debut season last year and was demoted to Triple-A Memphis twice.

Hopefully, Walker's career doesn't pan out similarly to Weeks's, which saw him make frequent trips to the injured list following a stubborn sprained ankle in 2011 while playing for the Brewers.

The former Milwaukee veteran recorded three consecutive seasons with 20 or more home runs from 2010-2012 but smashed only 31 dingers in the final five years of his career from 2013-2017.

Undoubtedly, there are early parallels between Walker and Weeks but the former Cardinals top prospect is only 22 years old, so he has plenty of time to catch up to the high expectations set upon him when he was selected 21st overall in the 2020 draft.

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