Cardinals, John Mozeliak pressure can't be a healthy environment for Jordan Walker

The way that the St. Louis Cardinals have handled Jordan Walker this season has been nothing short of disgraceful. The 22-year-old had a mostly impressive rookie year, posting a .787 OPS in 117 games and only looking better as he got more reps. He got off to a slow start this season, though, and was sent back down to the minors less than one month into the campaign.

Walker struggled for much of the year in the minors but with the team being desperate to get back into the playoff picture, they promoted Walker back to the majors to play in a platoon role. This was against everything John Mozeliak believed in, and set Walker up to fail. After just 11 at-bats, he was sent down again.

Now, with the Cardinals all but out of contention in late August, St. Louis chose to promote Walker to take the place of the recently DFA'd Tommy Pham. Walker now has about a month to prove that he belongs at the MLB level and can safely be considered part of the Cardinals' future. That can't be an ideal situation for him.

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Unwanted pressure can't be ideal environment for Jordan Walker

The pressure is on for the entire Cardinals organization. The playoffs are extremely unlikely considering where they are in the standings, but can they avoid finishing under .500 for a second straight year? Can they show some signs that they can realistically push for the playoffs in 2025? Again, can Walker show that he belongs?

Knowing how dire things look right now, the Cardinals will presumably be trying their hardest to win in 2025. That could mean Walker is either traded (which might be good) or sent back down to the minors if he can't perform in this last month of the season. Fortunately for Walker, Oli Marmol seems to be in his corner.

“I want to be super clear when I say this: I think Jordan Walker has a chance to be a real, game-changing, impact player for a very long time for this organization,” Marmol said of the second-year player the Cardinals recalled on Friday after designating Tommy Pham for assignment. “In order for him to do that, he’s going to need the at-bats, but he’s also going to need some real adjustments in those at-bats to become that player. But I do have confidence in his ability to do that.”

It's good that the Cardinals realized that Walker needs everyday reps in the majors to prove he belongs, but again, they did this with such little time left in the season. Are they really going to give a guy who was once one of the best prospects in the majors just one more month to prove that he belongs?

So far, early returns haven't been great for Walker, who has one hit in eight at-bats including five strikeouts. Perhaps he is pressing, knowing that he has to come up and hit immediately to have any sort of solidified future in the majors with John Mozeliak needing to win right now.

The Cardinals trying to win at all costs this season kept Walker down in the minors without the chance to develop against big league pitching. The team failing to win gives Walker this one chance, but it's only going to be for one month, and this might happen next season too if he doesn't hit. A lot of this is on Walker who simply has to hit, but it feels as if the Cardinals haven't set him up to succeed either.