The Absurdity of Jordan Walker's 2026 Season for Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals are finally seeing the version of Jordan Walker they envisioned when they promoted him to the big leagues ahead of the 2023 season.

To be fair, at the time in 2023, Walker wasn't even 21 years old when he made his big league debut. He was young and it takes time to adjust to the big league game. Now, Walker is 24 years old and he has finally put it all together. On Saturday, we saw another big reason why.

Walker blasted his 16th homer of the season against the Cincinnati Reds in his 61st game played.

JWALK JACK 💥

Send Jordan Walker to the All-Star Game: https://t.co/8EZhynYoGy pic.twitter.com/sGHyzyXMBO
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) June 6, 2026

What A Season So Far For Cardinals Slugger Jordan Walker

Jun 3, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals right fielder Jordan Walker (18) hits a single against the Texas Rangers during the sixth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

This is no small feat. In fact, Walker has now tied his career high for homers in a season with 16. He previously reached this threshold in 2023 as a rookie in 117 games played. This season, he has played just 61 games to reach the mark. The Cardinals entered the day on Saturday with a 33-28 record. That's 61 games played, and Saturday was the 62nd of the campaign. So, the Cardinals have 100 games left now.

If Walker can stay healthy, he's on pace to shatter his career high. With his homer on Saturday, Walker is now on pace for over 42 homers on the season if he continues at this rate. That's insane, especially when you take into account the fact that there was a section of the fanbase calling on the club to start him down in Triple-A this season after a bad performance in Spring Training games. Every year, it's important to note that the stats in Spring Training don't matter. Guys are working on things that they practiced throughout the offseason and it's never a true representation of a player, either good or bad. And yet there were people calling on the club to send him down to Triple-A.

Fortunately, the Cardinals didn't make a move like that. As of writing, Walker is slashing .301/.362/.559 with 16 homers, and 46 RBIs. We're not just talking about a good performance this season, we're talking about someone who should start in the All-Star Game. And, again, he's just 24 years old. It took a while to get here, but if this is the version of Walker that is here to stay, the Cardinals have a star to build around, along with JJ Wetherholt.

Add us as a preferred source on Google