Cardinals option former first-round pick

The Cardinals announced Wednesday that they’ve optioned right fielder Jordan Walker and lefty Zack Thompson to Triple-A Memphis. Infielder Jose Fermin and southpaw John King are being recalled from Memphis to take their spots on the roster.

It’s been a brutal start to the season for the 21-year-old Walker, who entered the 2023 season widely considered one of the game’s top-10 prospects and debuted with a .276/.342/.445 showing as a rookie. 

He’s looked lost at the plate in his sophomore season, hitting just .155/.239/.259 with a 26.9 percent strikeout rate and no home runs in his first 67 trips to the plate. 

Given the magnitude of those struggles and the Cardinals’ 10-14 start to the season — fifth in the NL Central — they’ll send Walker down to try to get the promising young slugger back on track.

This isn’t the first time the Cards have sent Walker to Memphis amid some struggles at the plate. Though he made the Opening Day roster in St. Louis last season and began his career with a 12-game hitting streak, Walker slumped in the aftermath and was optioned to Triple-A in late April — both to get his bat back on track and to afford the converted third baseman some additional reps in right field. 

His defense remains a work in progress, but Walker returned to the big leagues on June 2 and turned in a stout .277/.346/.455 batting line with 16 home runs, an 8.8 percent walk rate and a 21.7 percent strikeout rate in his final 387 plate appearances on the season.

With Walker down in Memphis, the Cardinals will go with Alec Burleson in left field, Michael Siani in center and Lars Nootbaar in right field. 

It’s not the alignment the team envisioned heading into the season, but it is still without Dylan Carlson (shoulder sprain) and Tommy Edman (recovering from wrist surgery) and has also optioned prospect Victor Scott II to Memphis in the wake of his own struggles (.085/.138/.136 in 65 plate appearances).

From a service time vantage point, Walker’s optional assignment doesn’t figure to change his free-agent timeline but could potentially alter his path to arbitration. He accrued 149 days of service in 2023, setting him up to reach Super Two status following the 2025 season and reach arbitration four times rather than three. 

If Walker is only down for a few weeks, he’ll very likely remain on that path. If his optional assignment extends a month or more as it did in 2023, it’s possible he could wind up falling shy of Super Two status and be on a more standard arbitration path. 

Either way, he’s already picked up enough service this season to reach the one-year mark, so he remains on track for free agency following the 2029 season.

Fermin’s recall to the big leagues is of some note for the Cards, given his early performance in Memphis. The 25-year-old hit just .235/.339/.255 in 61 plate appearances during last year’s MLB debut and was generally credited with bottom-of-the-scale power on scouting reports. 

He’s torn the cover off the ball in his first 72 plate appearances this year, however, belting four homers and hitting .350/.458/.650 with 11 walks (15.3 percent) against just three strikeouts (4.2 percent). 

He’s chipped in six doubles and also gone 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts. It’s unlikely he can sustain that level of production against major league pitching, of course, but he’s earned the opportunity to carve out a role on the big league roster.

Thompson, 26, made two starts early in the season but was rocked for eight runs in 10 1/3 innings. He moved back to the bullpen and has been working in a long relief role. The results haven’t been any better. 

Though he fired 3 1/3 shutout innings with six strikeouts against the Phillies on April 10, he’s followed that up with 10 runs over his next two appearances. He’ll give way to King, who allowed a run in 2 1/3 innings earlier this season and has yielded two runs in 5 1/3 Triple-A frames thus far.