April 24, 2026: Jordan Walker's challenge, JJ Wetherholt's patience, rotation depth worries
Let's talk Cards as a crucial stretch of schedule looms
Coming off a disappointing series loss in Miami and heading into a weekend home set against the Brendan Donovan-less Mariners, let’s take a moment for a Cardinals reset ...
Record: 14-9, third place in NL Central, 1 1/2 games out of first place, in third wild card position
Run differential: Minus-11, 18th in MLB
Strength of schedule: .481 opponents’ average winning percentage, 25th in MLB
Remaining strength of schedule: .534 opponents’ average winning percentage, second in MLB
Now let’s talk it out.
Walker’s first checkpoint
Not so long ago, Jordan Walker led the majors in homers. Over the next seven games, however, he struggled. Since his last home run on April 13, Walker has slashed .207/.281/.276 with a 40.6 K%, a 23.4% whiff rate, and an xwOBA of .214. Those are bad numbers. Do they concern me? Not really, mostly because it’s a minuscule sample and even the best hitters go through feeble stretches that are longer than this one. It’s information in a limited dose and nothing more. Yet.
What I do find interesting is how pitchers have attacked Walker during this cold snap. From Opening Day through April 13, Walker faced hard stuff -- fastballs and sinkers -- almost half the time, 49.2% of the time to be precise. Since he hit his 10th home run of 2026, he’s faced hard stuff just 30.6% of the time. Sure, some of that difference may be repertoire-driven based on the pitchers he’s faced, but that certainly doesn’t explain all of it. To fill the gap, opposing pitchers since April 14 have fed him modestly more offspeed stuff and a lot more breaking stuff. They’re treating him differently.
At the same time, you can see a “low and away” drift to how pitchers are locating against Walker lately. Here’s Walker’s pitch location chart from March 26 through April 13:
And here it is since April 14:
This is not an especially drastic difference, but you can make it a subtle tendency to go right at Walker’s weakness, which is offering at pitches located low and outside the zone. The big thing, though, is how many fewer fastballs he’s seen over the last week-plus. That’s of course a sign of respect, and it’s also an adjustment. It’s now on Walker to adjust to those adjustments. This is why I like the idea of giving Walker that two-day reset thanks to his not being in Oli Marmol’s getaway day lineup on Wednesday followed by Thursday’s off day. According to Walker’s own words, he struggles to stay out of his head when it comes to his fine-tuned swing and his efforts to keep those old bad habits from sneaking back in. This upcoming stretch, after pitchers confronted him quite differently and after his brief respite, will be an interesting one for Walker.
