The St. Louis Cardinals clearly are going to be making big changes this winter but they mainly will revolve around veterans.
St. Louis is going to cut ties with plenty of high-priced players to recoup prospects to fix the farm system. The Cardinals are going to be a young team in 2025 and one player who should get plenty of playing time is Jordan Walker.
He has had an up-and-down start to his big-league career. Walker struggled somewhat early on in his rookie year and was demoted. He turned things around and finished the season slashing .276/.342/.445 with 16 home runs and 51 RBIs as a 21-year-old.
That certainly isn’t common. He struggled to begin his sophomore season and was sent to the minors again and didn’t get a big enough opportunity. It seems like the way the organization has handled him has been strange. But, he has all of the upside in the world and should be a major player for the team for years to come.
While this is the case, FanSided’s Neil Raymond listed him as a trade target for the Miami Marlins.
“This off-season will see the Miami Marlins hire a new manager,” Raymond said. “It will also however have The Fish looking at upgrading the roster. At least that’s the expectation. Peter Bendix could be focusing on the OF, which is a clear area of improvement for the team. One such potentially available option is the aforementioned RF Jordan Walker.
“It’s important to point out that there’s no reason to necessarily believe that Walker is available. He’s still in his pre-arb phase, which means that he’s relatively inexpensive. St. Louis is expected to lower their payroll this off-season, and obviously trading Walker is hardly helping them in this case. He’s also a potential part of their future, which means that there’s even less sense for them to move him…It would be interesting to see if a trade with the Miami Marlins can then be worked out.”
St. Louis already has had too many problems giving up on young outfielders too early. The Cardinals shouldn’t move Walker.
