All you need to know about the age of Jordan Walker who has been playing extremely well for the St. Louis Cardinals.
The start of the Jordan Walker era in St. Louis has finally here. He is only twenty years old, but he has already proven his dominance in the major leagues, which has piqued the interest of many Cardinals fans. That by itself is a rather significant point to make. Walker, who is listed as the No. 4 prospect in all of baseball by MLB Pipeline, showed up for Spring Training this year as a non-roster invitee despite the fact that he was only 20 years old and had never played above Double-A.
As he made his debut on Thursday, going 1-for-5 and scoring his first career RBI as the starting right fielder for the Cardinals in a defeat to the Blue Jays by a score of 10-9, he accomplished more than simply a personal milestone for himself. For one thing, it had been a hundred years since the Cardinals had begun an Opening Day game with a position player who was 20 years old or younger.
In point of fact, only four players in the whole history of the team had ever made it into the Opening Day lineup before the age of 21. These four players were Frank Snyder (1915), Jack Smith (1916), Rogers Hornsby (1916-17), and Howard Freigau (1923). Since 1901, just 41 position players aged 20 or younger have made their debuts in the Major League Baseball (MLB) as Opening Day starters.
There is probably not much that can be deduced from this regarding Walker’s already very promising future. Yet, the grandeur associated with his debut did provide for an appropriate conclusion to a spring that was spent exceeding expectations.
Walker also set a record by becoming the youngest position player to make his Big League debut for St. Louis as part of an Opening Day lineup. He beat out Albert Pujols, who was 21 when he made his debut in the Major Leagues in 2001, who held the previous record. Additionally, this extends far beyond the scope of franchise history. Only 108 position players in the history of the AL and NL have started on Opening Day before turning 21 years old in the Modern Period, which dates back to 1900.
Jordan Walker came into the world in 2002 and went to Decatur High School, where he participated in baseball. During his junior season in 2019, he had a batting average of.519, along with 17 home runs, 60 runs driven in (RBIs), and 24 stolen bases. [In his senior year of 2020, he was named the Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year after compiling a batting average of.457 with four home runs and 15 RBIs over 16 games before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
He has decided to play baseball for the college team at Duke University. Walker was taken by the St. Louis Cardinals with the 21st overall pick in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft in 2020. Walker signed a contract with the Cardinals on June 23 and received a signing bonus of $2.9 million.
As a result of the pandemic, the minor league season was canceled in 2020, hence he did not participate in any games for any of the league’s affiliates. Walker was given a position with the Palm Beach Cardinals of the Low-A Southeast league in 2021 by the Cardinals. He hit a home run on the very first pitch of his very first at-bat in the major leagues.
John Mozeliak, the president of baseball operations for the Cardinals, made the announcement on March 25, 2023, that Walker will be on the team’s Opening Day roster. On March 30, Walker made his major league debut with the Cardinals, starting in right field and recording his first hit as well as his first run batted in. Today, Walker hit his first career home run in the major leagues, and he is already well on his way to being a major player in the game.
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