As most of you know, I was lucky enough to be invited to attend Winter Warmup as a reporter. Last year, I used that experience to write several season previews. Due to the late start of the top 20 prospect series (caused by waiting for Brendan Donovan to be traded), my Winter Warmup stories have been pushed to now instead of at the beginning of spring training. Thus technically, these could also be called season previews, but there’s a good chance I write a couple of these after the season has already started. I’ll try to pick stories that are not outdated for the ones during the season.
Coming into the season, the infield looked fairly strong, the bullpen looked like it should be competent, and the starting rotation, well that took a bit more hoping, but each individual member was fully capable of being average or better and there’s a good amount of depth for when things went wrong. Average rotations have certainly been built on flimsier material.
Outfield though, that took some imagination. The kind of imagination that would get you labeled a homer who was incapable of looking at things objectively. Too much had to go right and nobody was a safe bet. There were only two sure starters and both gave you reason to doubt them. Victor Scott can’t hit and Jordan Walker can’t really do anything. As for that third spot, hope things don’t go too badly and pray Lars Nootbaar gets back quickly.
Two weeks into the season, the biggest homer in the world wouldn’t dare predict what Jordan Walker has done. It’s almost inconceivable, which is itself kind of a crazy thing to think for a man once considered a top 10 prospect in the game. Of course, he was capable of this. It just doesn’t usually happen after 1,000 plate appearances of failure. Obviously, that affected him.
“When you go into the MLB, you know there are gonna be struggles,” Walker said. “I knew that as a rookie coming up. I didn’t think everything was gonna go my way immediately and that it was always gonna go my way. But it’s still tough to deal with.”
Walker began his journey to this point by starting at Driveline. Interestingly, Driveline seems to be getting all the credit (as judged by an MLB Network clip, which also erroneously seemed to suggest he’s now successful because of more consistent playing time), but if I’m hearing his quote correctly, he instituted his changes at a different sports performance facility.
“At the beginning of the season, I went Driveline and did the whole body analysis thing, how I move and I brought that program over to Cressey,” Walker said. “We took that Driveline program and I incorporated it to the movement and workouts at Cressey.”
I’m pretty sure he meant offseason, but he definitely did say season. If I were an actual reporter, I would contact Walker to clarify, but I don’t have his number and I’m not going to change a quote based on an assumption. It’s not the point anyway. He gave a special shout-out to Shane Olive and Max Rios at Cressey as people he worked closely with. He didn’t mention their last names, but they do have a website, so it wasn’t hard to find.
But they didn’t start from the vantage point of let’s increase the launch angle.
“To be honest, it was really how forward I was coming when I was hitting and what we learned is that when I’m hitting off my backside, I’m driving the ball in the gaps way more consistently,” Walker said. “I’m not rolling over, I’m not getting that topspin on the ball. The focus is really how far back I’m onto my hip and how I’m hitting on my backside rather than me focusing on launch angle.”
Essentially, he doesn’t need to focus on launch angle. Launch angle is more of a consequence of smart, effective changes.
“If I’m moving correctly, then the launch angle and exit velo and driving it where I want to will come up with it,” Walker said.
That is certainly a sentiment that Nathan Church would agree with. Though in a different spot and with different expectations, his career did hang in the balance because of a concern about power. It’s just that his power was lacking in the minor leagues. He reached AA in 2024, but only managed a .106 ISO, which also happened to be his professional high at the time. After starting 2025 injured, he then suddenly had power en route to a surprise debut in the MLB.
“A lot of it is not really trying to put up power numbers to be honest,” Church said. “A lot of it is just trying to get stronger in the gym and knowing how my body moves correctly is kind of the main thing. The numbers kind of spoke for itself. Put all the work in the gym and the training room and the cage kind of shows out in the field.”
I realize that Walker went to outside sources to improve his hitting, but the verbiage both use suggest the Cardinals are also preaching this. Both reference that if their body moves correctly, the power will naturally come. That cannot be a coincidence. Joshua Baez, in the organization since he was drafted in 2021, thinks the coaching has improved since he got here.
“It’s been going upwards every single year,” Baez said. “They’re really involved with the players, they want to know about them, what they’re doing, their routine, to help them prepare for spring training and the season.”
And yes, if you’re good at math, if he is indeed correct about it being better every year, it means things were improving before Chaim Bloom even got there. Probably a consequence of him getting better instruction as he rose through the system, but I thought I’d point that out. But he did get more specific in how things are different now.
“It was just a more personalized program for me,” Baez said. “They know me better now, it was more about me and not so much comparing or saying ‘maybe this could work for you.’ Going by experience and just try to find things that will continue to make me better.”
Baez could commiserate with Walker on struggles, albeit he got a lot less attention for them. Nonetheless, he was a high draft pick, a somewhat highly rated prospect, and the road has probably been bumpier than he thought it would be.
“Going through the down times, yeah it definitely questions you,” Baez said. “Being drafted high, having all these expectations, then just hitting that brick wall, it just builds character. I just found a way to get up and keep going every time.”
Is there a more character-building sport than baseball? My experience is on a far smaller scale and not specifically about baseball, but when I first came onto this blog, I spammed the fanpost section with recaps back when the fanpost was considered sacred and I got roasted here in the comments and I soon learned on Twitter and I was an 18-year-old trying to skip a few steps, so it wasn’t entirely unjustified, but it definitely hurt me.
But it was character-building. Didn’t matter who it was, I used to take criticism so personally. But after that, a random person on social media doesn’t affect me at all. So on the larger, more public scale that Baez and Walker had to deal with, I’m guessing it’s significantly easier to remain confident even when slumping after their struggles. And confidence is not seen in the advanced stats, but we’re all human and it’s going to affect play.
And to again relate to my own experience: that experience also made me a better writer and a better baseball fan. It’s why I bothered to learn about advanced analytics, which only made me love the sport more. Walker, who has previously been somewhat hesitant to change a swing he was comfortable with, became someone ready to make changes.
“He has had a better, more engaged and more communicative offseason than any than I think people can remember from him,” POBO Chaim Bloom said. “Obviously, the proof will be in the pudding. But I’m encouraged by where his head is at in terms of understanding what the adjustments need to be for him to have consistent success at this level.”
Bloom followed that up with a quote that may have been scoffed at in spring training, especially in the middle of it, but seems like the most obvious statement ever given how Walker has started his season.
“You don’t have to squint to see why the upside is worth staying with him,” Bloom said.
What’s funny is that at the time he said that, some may have argued that you do actually have to squint. But you really don’t have to squint now. It’s smacking you right in the face.
“I still have the same mentality,” Walker said. “I want to come here, I want to win a spot, and I want to have a crazy year.”
So far, so good.
