What went wrong for Jordan Walker? Four things to know about the struggling Cardinals bat who was just demoted.

The St. Louis Cardinals, who have a sluggish 10-14 start and are last in the National League Central, made multiple personnel moves before of Wednesday’s series finale against Arizona. The most prominent of these was the decision to demote outfielder and former top prospect Jordan Walker to Triple-A Memphis. The Cardinals traded lefty Zack Thompson to make place on the roster for freshly promoted infielders José Fermín and John King.

Walker, 21, has been in a bad slump to start the year. In 20 games, he hit.155/.239/.259 (41 OPS+), with no home runs and five extra-base hits. He had been benched in two of the Cardinals’ previous three games before getting a start at DH on Tuesday night, going 0 for 3 with a strikeout and a hit by pitch in a 14-1 loss. At the very least, the demotion is well-timed. Walker was relegated a year ago on Friday, April 26, after unexpectedly making the Opening Day roster for 2023. He returned to the majors on June 2 and went on to hit.277/.346/.455, with 14 home runs in 97 games. It’s reasonable to assume that the Cardinals were hoping for more of that from Walker to begin this year. Alas, few developmental arcs are so pristine.

You may be wondering how Walker has found himself back on the wrong side of the big-league, minor-league divide — and whether there is reason to believe he can live up to the promise that once garnered him recognition as one of the game’s finest prospects. CBS Sports has addressed four key points about his struggles and prospects.

Walker has faced questions about his spray since his prospect days. According to evaluators who spoke with CBS Sports on the subject, teaching a batter to lift the ball more frequently is easier than teaching them to impact the ball more often. This is consistent with Walker’s reputation as one of the top offensive prospects in the game.

Unfortunately, Walker is still a work in progress. His average launch angle has increased from 10.2 degrees to 12.8 degrees, but that doesn’t guarantee the change has been beneficial. Instead, Walker is hitting more grounders (50% versus 46.9%) and fewer balls in the “sweet spot” between 10 and 30 degrees (28.6% versus 33.6%).

To put it another way, Walker has been playing pepper with rival third base players:

Let’s face it. Walker doesn’t offer anything to the table other from his offense. He’s more athletic for his stature than you might expect (he is in the 80th percentile in sprint speed), but he doesn’t cause havoc on the bases, and last season he was rated as one of the worst defenders in Major League Baseball. Even if he has progressed to a scratch level, organizations will go to any length to keep the guy in the lineup if he is not producing at the plate.

So the onus is squarely on Walker’s bat. It is what will get him playing and compensated in the major leagues. The good news is that his problems appear to be solvable; the bad news is that they persist despite the fact that they are not new. Perhaps whatever modifications the Cardinals have in mind for him at Memphis will work. We will see.

The Cardinals’ decision to demote Walker was probably not simple. His development has been erratic, even if each step made logical at the time. It’s unclear whether or not this will impede his progress. Still, it was a risk the Cardinals had to take to save their season.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the Cardinals’ offense is one of the worst in baseball. They start Wednesday ranked 26th in runs scored and 27th in wRC+. Walker wasn’t the only one who didn’t hit: Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Gorman, Michael Siani, and Alec Burleson all have OPS+ numbers below 80. To look at the Cardinals’ problems from a another perspective, Brendan Donovan’s 86, while well below his usual level, ranks seventh on the club among qualifiers. It’s never a good sign when a potentially disastrous personal performance appears respectable in compared to the rest of the team.

Realistically, the Cardinals cannot demote every batter who has struggled throughout the first month. They can choose their places based on their depth and the player’s remaining minor-league choices. That’s why Victor Scott II was relegated to the minors after a dreadful 20-game debut, and Walker is joining him.

Despite this setback, Walker is not a lost cause. He just isn’t someone who should be on the major league roster right now. That can alter in only a few weeks. The Cardinals can only hope that it happens; the best version of their team involves him.