Jordan Walker, St. Louis Cardinals. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
The St. Louis Cardinals are now 10-17 after a Friday night loss to the Dodgers and there’s too much talent in Triple-A to not shake up the roster.
Especially in comparison to preseason expectations, there’s no other way to describe the St. Louis Cardinals‘ start to the 2023 MLB season than as an abject disaster.
With a loss in Los Angeles on Friday night, the Cardinals are now 10-17 on the season and sitting in last place in the NL Central. Yes, even the Reds are a game ahead. Things have gotten bad in St. Louis and, despite Paul Goldschmidt doing everything he can by himself, it’s not been enough.
Manager Oli Marmol is searching for answers. But sometimes the simplest solution is the easiest solution. In this case, that solution would be dipping into the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds, a team stocked with some of the elite talent in the organization, and making some call-ups to help shake things up at the big-league level.
These three players in particular need to be called up by the Cardinals to try and jumpstart the season after the awful start.
STL Cardinals rumors: Jordan Walker needs to be back on the Cards roster
I’m on the record as not being okay with Jordan Walker being demoted this past week in the first place. Given the state of the Cardinals, it made no sense for the club to option one of its brightest young stars who, in his first taste of MLB action, had proven to be a solid hitter that gave a jolt of life.
On Friday night in Memphis, Walker hit a solo home run for his lone hit in eight at-bats since being demoted from St. Louis. While that’s not great, the fact of the matter is that Walker slashed an impressive .274/.321/.397 as a rookie in 20 games with the Cards to start the season before being optioned. He also smacked two home runs, three doubles and had 11 RBI on the year, though the 20 strikeouts were a bit concerning.
With the underperformance of Alec Burleson (.224/.28/.421), Tyler O’Neill (.256/.318/.385) and even Dylan Carlson (.250/.304/.327), St. Louis isn’t getting the most of their outfielders right now. While it would be great for any or all of those guys to get hot, Walker simply performed better at the same level this year and shouldn’t be getting wasted in Triple-A for much longer, especially if the Cardinals continue to be unsuccessful in winning ballgames.