Cardinals avoid making catastrophic mistake with Jordan Walker

The St. Louis Cardinals have positioned themselves to be trade deadline buyers. At 48-42, they're a season-high six games over .500 and are in sole possession of the second Wild Card spot in the NL. Barring a collapse of epic proportions, John Mozeliak will be looking to improve the team at the deadline, not trade core players away.

One way for the Cardinals to really improve would be to consider trading a guy like Jordan Walker for a player who can help them win now. On paper, this makes sense. Walker struggled so much in the majors to the point where the team had to send him back down to the minors in late April, and he hasn't hit very well in AAA either.

As discouraging as Walker's season has been, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reported on the Foul Territory podcast that fans should not expect the Cardinals to sell low on Walker. This is the right approach for them to take.

Cardinals take right approach by refusing to sell low on Jordan Walker

Walker, at one point, was considered one of the most exciting prospects in baseball. He played his way onto the Cardinals Opening Day roster in 2023 and despite some ups and downs, he put together a strong offensive season, slashing .276/.342/.445 with 16 home runs. Obviously he's not a great defender in the outfield and hits the ball on the ground too much, but he had an impressive debut season.

The 2024 campaign has not gone well at all for Walker, but he's just 22 years old. Do the Cardinals really want to trade him for a short-term gain when said gain likely wouldn't make them clear favorites over the National League's elite teams?

The Cardinals would be selling Walker at his absolute lowest point. He still has value, but selling low on anyone generally won't work in the favor of the team selling the player.

This Cardinals franchise has a history of getting rid of promising outfielders in recent memory and having it bite them hard. Lane Thomas, Adolis Garcia, and Randy Arozarena are just some examples. They don't want Walker to be next on that list, nor should they.

The Cardinals have other avenues that they should go down to upgrade their roster before trading Walker, like trading other high-end prospects or even trading from their MLB team with guys like Dylan Carlson and/or Ivan Herrera as Rosenthal mentioned.

Walker's 2024 season has been incredibly disappointing, but it doesn't mean he's done as an MLB player. He could very easily get hot in the not-too-distant future and be a factor in the majors down the stretch. Even if he doesn't, he's too promising of a player for the future of this team to trade when his value is down the drain.

Trading him while he was a prospect or even last season is one thing. Doing so when he's had as miserable of a year as he has is another. It'd be wiser to bet on a bounce-back and see what Walker can do in a Cardinals uniform.