Congratulations to Cardinals right fielder Jordan Walker for being selected as a contestant for the 2026 Home Run Derby, set for Monday night in Philadelphia, the day before the annual MLB All-Star Game.
Walker’s emphatic and definitive break-out season just keeps getting better and better. And I think he’s got a chance to win the HR contest. I’ll probably write something about that on Friday. I’ve done my homework.
I’m so impressed by Walker’s offensive performance through his first 89 games of the 2026 season, I wanted to see how his show-out fits into Cardinals franchise history.
I looked at this three ways:
1. Walker’s place in Cards history for the best performance over the first 89 games of a player’s season. This will compare Walker’s work to that of some of the biggest names and greatest hitters that ever dressed in the Birds on the Bat uniform. The specific age of the hitter doesn’t matter.
2. Where does Walker’s age 24 season rate among the finest age 24 seasons by a Cardinal batter since the Redbirds first flew in 1900? Our review is based on the hitter’s first 89 games of the season.
3. Where does Walker rank among the top showings by a 24-year old Cards hitter in a season since 1900? Caveat: the Cardinals still have a lot of games remaining on their 2026 schedule, so Walker’s numbers must hold up. But we can do an in-progress report, right?
BEST HITTING DISPLAY BY A CARDINAL IN HIS FIRST 89 GAMES OF A SEASON
My goodness, Walker is hanging out with some mighty fine and distinguished company in franchise history.
I didn’t want to get too deep and esoteric on this. So I entered three Walker stats to see how many Cardinal hitters matched or exceeded the combination of numbers in their first 89 regular season games of a baseball year.
I went with these minimum standards, and these numbers were plucked from Walker’s hitting profile through the Cards 5-1 over Milwaukee on Wednesday night.
$ 21 home runs
$ 70 RBIs
$ .889 OPS.
The findings: 13 different Cardinals reached that level (and then some) through their first 89 games of the new year since 1900.
Several of the hitters put up that stat line multiple times during their initial 89 games of the new campaign. Here are the names and the number of times each Redbird met the 21-homer, 70 RBI, .889 OPS standard:
= Albert Pujols, 5
= Stan Musial, 4
= Rogers Hornsby, 2
= Chick Hafey, 2
= Mark McGwire, 2
And here are the gentlemen that hit the statistical markers one time during their first 89 games of a season as Cardinals.
= Johnny Mize
= Dick Allen
= Sunny Jim Bottomley
= Ripper Collins
= Joe Medwick
= Jack Clark
= Ray Lankford
= Jordan Walker
Lots of Hall of Famers there, either in Cooperstown or the Cardinals’ Hall.
BEST 89-GAME START TO A SEASON BY A 24-YEAR OLD CARDINAL HITTER
This is based on a minimum 21 homers, 70 RBIs and .889 OPS through the player’s first 89 games in his age-24 season.
It’s a short list.
a. Albert Pujols, 2004
b. Jordan Walker, 2026
Walker and Pujols in the same group? Again? In the first category and in the second listing? Good on Walker!
BEST OFFENSE FROM A 24-YEAR OLD CARDINAL HITTER OVER THE ENTIRE SEASON
Walker makes the list, because at this point he has enough plate appearances to qualify for the MLB leaderboard. But as I mentioned earlier, he’ll have to maintain the quality of his initial 89-game showing.
I have a few categories for you to peruse, and please make a mental note of some of the names you’ll see…
Best wRC+ by a Cardinal at age 24
Rogers Hornsby: 83 percent above league average offensively in 1920.
Albert Pujols: 71% above league average offensively in 2004
Johnny Mize, 71% above average in 1937.
Joe Medwick, 51% above average offensively in 1936.
Jordan Walker, 43% above league average offensively in 2026.
Have yourself a season, Mr. Walker.
Next: Best slugging percentage by a Cardinal at age 24
– Pujols, .657 in 2004
– Mize, .595 in 1937
– Medwick, .577 in 1936
– Hornsby, .559 in 1920
– Fernando Tatis Sr., .553, 1999
– Jordan Walker, .534 in 2026
Next: top OPS by a Cardinal in his age-24 season
* Pujols 1.072 in 2004
* Mize, 1.021 in 1937
* Hornsby, .990 in 1920
* Medwick, .964 in 1936
* Les Bell, .901 in 1926
* Jordan Walker, .889 in 2026
I’ve seen some dramatic and spectacular transformations by athletes in my time, but the stunning emergence of Jordan Walker after two-plus seasons of failure and despair is one of the best.
I was smiling as I typed out all of these lists and groupings and kept tapping W-A-L-K-E-R near names like Musial, Hornsby, Pujols, Mize, Medwick.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Jordan Walker has planned for us during the remainder of the 2026 season.
Thanks for reading …
—Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Keith Tkachuk, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.