A Cardinals-Mariners trade that gives Jordan Walker a second chance

The St. Louis Cardinals believed that they had a star on their hands when Jordan Walker was making his way to the big leagues. Walker has a huge arm, good speed and incredible power. He was unanimously one of the top prospects in the game of baseball.

Walker came up in 2023 and he looked to be everything that he was expected to be. Walker slashed .276/.342/.445 with 16 home runs and 19 doubles in his first 117 games in the big leagues. The Cardinals expected Walker to take a big jump in his sophomore year.

But all that Walker did was take a huge step back. In his second year, split into a few stints in the big leagues, Walker slashed .189/.248/.357 with just five home runs in 46 games.

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A Cardinals-Mariners trade that moves Jordan Walker for proven pitching

It seems as though Walker needs a change of scenery after this massive step back. If the Cardinals are going to move on from him, they're going to need a good, young pitcher in return. There's no better place to find young pitching talent than in the Seattle Mariners system.

A one-for-one swap of Mariners pitcher Emerson Hancock for Walker doesn't quite equate in value to me. The Cardinals would have to throw in another prospect to equal the value that Hancock has. Pitchers, especially young, talented pitchers, hold more value in the trade market than position players do.

The additional player is the Cardinals 18th-ranked prospect, per MLB Pipeline, pitcher Max Rajcic.

Rajcic, 23, is a very promising young prospect, but he took a small step back this season, posting an ERA of 4.33 in 24 Double-A starts this year. He doesn't have an outlier pitch, but he commands his arsenal well and he changes speeds enough to keep hitters off balance.

As for the Cardinals side of the trade, Hancock is an extremely talented young arm.

Hancock, 25, seems like a pitcher out of the wrong generation. He doesn't have the overpowering fastball that is to be expected of young arms. His fastball sits in the low to mid 90s, but he has a good bit of movement on it and he commands it extremely well. He's posted a 4.68 ERA in 14 career starts.

This trade sends both organizations in the directions that they wish to go in. The Cardinals need to find a new home for Jordan Walker and adding a young arm with the potential that Hancock has would be perfect. The Mariners have a ton of pitching talent and they can afford to mortgage some of it to acquire a high potential bat like Walker.