{"id":590723,"date":"2026-04-08T18:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/590723\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T18:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:01:11","slug":"mlb-mailbag-jordan-walker-cubs-guardians-tigers-riley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/590723\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Mailbag: Jordan Walker, Cubs, Guardians, Tigers, Riley"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week’s mailbag gets into Jordan Walker<\/a>‘s hot start, the Cubs’ approach to Cade Horton<\/a>‘s season-ending injury, the future of the Guardians, and slow starts for the Tigers as well as Braves third baseman Austin Riley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sam asks:<\/p>\n

I know it way too early to ask this question I cannot help it. Jordan Walker has a 183 wRC+ and is on pace for 39 HRs is he has 456 ABs (ZIPS AB projection). He will cool off a bit\u2014at least. But say he has finally arrived (met his potential, however you want to call it) and settles into being a 130-135 wRC+ and 30-35 HR hitter, how do you think that impacts the Cardinals’ short and long term outlook with their rebuild?<\/p>\n

Walker, 24 in May, sits at a 181 wRC+ through 44 plate appearances after hitting a solo home run in five trips to the plate Tuesday at Nationals Park.<\/p>\n

I pulled up the wRC+ leaderboard last year\u00a0through April 6th<\/a>, with a minimum of 40 plate appearances.\u00a0 Here’s a list of the top 20, first showing their wRC+ through April 6th and then showing what it was for that player for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

Aaron Judge<\/a> – 246 \/ 202
\nKyle Tucker<\/a> – 224 \/ 126
\nKristian Campbell<\/a> – 207 \/ 63
\nTyler Soderstrom<\/a> – 206 \/ 119
\nJackson Merrill<\/a> – 201 \/ 108
\nSpencer Torkelson<\/a> – 193 \/ 112
\nAnthony Volpe<\/a> – 192 \/ 75
\nCorbin Carroll<\/a> – 181 \/ 136
\nNolan Arenado<\/a> – 178 \/ 75
\nKyle Schwarber<\/a> – 178 \/ 151
\nLars Nootbaar<\/a> – 171 \/ 90
\nAlex Bregman<\/a> – 166 \/ 121
\nFernando Tatis Jr.<\/a> – 164 \/ 129
\nSal Frelick<\/a> – 162 \/ 110
\nHeliot Ramos<\/a> – 159 \/ 103
\nBrendan Donovan<\/a> – 157 \/ 115
\nJose Altuve<\/a> – 155 \/ 111
\nTeoscar Hernandez<\/a> – 153 \/ 97
\nEugenio Suarez<\/a> – 152 \/ 123
\nJazz Chisholm Jr.<\/a> – 150 \/ 124
\nJordan Westburg<\/a> – 149 \/ 110
\nShohei Ohtani<\/a> – 148 \/ 174
\nAndres Gimenez<\/a> – 147 \/ 60
\nJulio Rodriguez<\/a> – 144 \/ 125
\nNico Hoerner<\/a> – 138 \/ 108
\nJackson Chourio<\/a> – 136 \/ 109
\nSeiya Suzuki<\/a> – 135 \/ 121
\nLawrence Butler<\/a> – 134 \/ 93
\nRafael Devers<\/a> – 134 \/ 135
\nBrice Turang<\/a> – 134 \/ 123<\/p>\n

Walker came into the 2026 season with 1,039 Major League plate appearances and an 89 wRC+.\u00a0 Every player is different, but the best comp here might be Torkelson, even though the latter had a little more experience and success in his career to that point.\u00a0 But I’d say the range of rest-of-season outcomes on Walker remains very wide: this could be nothing, or a full breakout.\u00a0 Sorry, the truth is often boring.<\/p>\n

I also think it’s worth asking whether Walker has hit like this in the Majors before.\u00a0 For that, we use the Stathead<\/a> Span Finder.\u00a0 I’m not a huge OPS guy, but that’s probably the best “overall offense” stat in this tool.\u00a0 Walker’s OPS is currently 1.014, spanning 11 games and 44 PA.\u00a0 He has had a couple of streaks at least this good, basically in June and August of his 2023 rookie season:<\/p>\n

6-6-23 to 6-18-23: Walker hit .395\/.477\/.789 (1.267 OPS) with 4 HR in 44 PA
\n8-22-23 to 9-5-23: Walker hit .432\/.488\/.838 (1.326 OPS) in 4 HR in 43 PA<\/p>\n

Even in his lousy 2025 season, Walker had a 43-PA July run where he hit .342\/.419\/.500 (.919 OPS) over 43 PA, though he did not homer during that streak.<\/p>\n

What kind of evidence is on the breakout side of the ledger?<\/p>\n


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