MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Two outfielders from the St. Louis Cardinals’ Opening Day lineup, Jordan Walker and Victor Scott II, have spent more than a month at Triple-A Memphis since their minor-league options.
Walker and Scott both struggled to find their footing early in the 2024 season, leading to their extended minor-league options.
The Cardinals have filled the gaps since then with a combination of Michael Siani, Alec Burleson, Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan and Dylan Carlson. Their current cast has led to a lot of shuffling in the outfield.
Walker and Scott had chances to grasp an everyday role to start the season, though their paths back to the big-league club are a bit unclear. Their minor-league returns haven’t exactly turned heads for a fast return either.
Jordan Walker
22 years old. Second big-league season. Primarily right field.
Walker, touted among baseball’s best prospects last year, was optioned in late-April for the second consecutive season. He hit .155 with four RBI and 18 strikeouts in 58 at-bats prior to his option.
The Cardinals wanted Walker to work on driving the ball into the air more often last year, and it seems he is still working to find a balance between contact in the air and contact on the ground in his trip down.
Walker’s current minor-league assignment has allowed him to work on his bat speed and foot positioning, two parts of his offensive approach he emphasized in spring training. He told Memphis Nexstar affiliate WREG in May he felt he was trying “too hard” to produce and needed to work on simplifying his game.
Walker, who climbed to the big-league level quickly behind his power, only has one home run in 118 at-bats with Memphis this year. His slugging percentage (.373) is also below par. He has made improvements in reducing strikeouts (1 in every 6.2 at-bats) and ground-ball outs (0.75 GO/AO).
The mechanics point toward improvement, but for whatever reason, Walker’s power is still not translating to consistent results. The Cardinals don’t appear ready to rush him back until Walker restores the power outage.
Victor Scott
23 years old. First big-league season. Primarily centerfield.
Scott may not have made the big-league club out of camp had it not been for mounting outfield injuries and his strong spring campaign. His defense and speed, especially, helped his case for his first promotion. His early offensive returns, however, hinted that he needed more seasoning.
Scott hit .085 with two RBI and 15 strikeouts in 59 at-bats prior to his option. He also stole two bases and scored six runs, showing the ability to change games with his speed, but not as frequently as he did at the minor-league level.
Scott is starting almost every day in Memphis, but his stats have shown some regression after setting the bar high prior to his big-league promotion. His .216 batting average is almost 100 points lower than his spring training clip (.317). His 16 stolen bases are a positive sign of continuing to build his speed, but that would pace to around 66 in a full minor-league season compared to his 94 last season.
This also seems like a case where the Cardinals won’t want to rush Scott back to the big leagues. Hitting improvements could certainly accelerate his return, though his quickest chance of returning likely depends on how much the injury bug bites the current core of St. Louis outfielders, particularly those who can cover center like Siani and Carlson.
NOTE: Video attached to the story comes from a February spring training report on Jordan Walker from FOX 2’s Kevin Ryans.