The St. Louis Cardinals made a series of notable roster moves on Tuesday prior to their game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Those included activating veteran infielder Matt Carpenter; recalling first baseman Luken Baker; releasing infielder Brandon Crawford; and optioning outfielder Jordan Walker back to Triple-A Memphis.
Walker’s demotion concludes a brief, week-long return to the active roster that saw him go 1 for 11 with three strikeouts and a walk in his first big-league action since April.
“My philosophy is [and] has always been if you’re a young player, you need to play,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak told reporters, including The Athletic’s Katie Woo. “I always cringe at the idea of someone who’s 22 years old sitting on the bench.”
Walker, 22, is a former top prospect who has failed to build upon his rookie season, when he posted a 113 OPS+ across 117 games. Including this recent stretch of games, he’s now hitting .145/.228/.232 (30 OPS+) with no home runs and five extra-base hits in 24 big-league contests. What’s more is that Walker has hit only .257/.321/.426 with nine home runs in 78 games at the Triple-A level.
Those marks are not only beneath what you would expect from someone of Walker’s pedigree and skills, but the resulting OPS was also well beneath the Memphis team average.
It’s an open question now as to how the Cardinals approach Walker heading into the offseason. He would appear to have too much upside to give up on him because of a down year, but it’s difficult to see them assuring him a spot in the starting lineup heading into next spring. Presuming Mozeliak also cringes at the idea of 23 year olds sitting on the bench, Walker may have no choice but to spend more time in Memphis.
