Before Cardinals slugger Jordan Walker launched his jaw-dropping, career-changing 2026 season, his most successful stretch over the previous three years came following an extended work session with Casey Cheoweth, then the hitting coach of the Double-A Springfield Cardinals.

Maybe it’s no coincidence that Walker’s dominance in 2026 has coincided with Chenoweth being promoted to the big-league club as an assistant hitting coach. 

Walker, 24, went into Thursday’s game in New York slashing .303/.360/.566/.926 with 17 homers, 15 doubles, 52 RBI and 10 stolen bases. He has become just the 31st player in MLB history – and only the second Cardinal – with at least 17 homers, 50 RBI and 10 stolen bases in a team’s first 65 games.

That production, of course, is almost diametrically opposite of the success that Walker had over the first three seasons of his MLB career. Chenoweth, who has teamed up with Cardinals hitting coach Brant Brown and assistant hitting coach Brandon Allen, feels that simplifying everything about Walker’s plate approach has allowed the 6-foot-6, 250-pound slugger to finally tap into his potential.

“I think just really going back to what his natural movement patterns were – we even looked at video back in high school, when he had a very simple movement, like very direct to the plate and right through the big part of the field,” Chenoweth said recently of Walker, who has the NL’s second-best OPS (.926) through 64 games. “I like to categorize Jordan as a one-piece mover. When he loads and gathers, it's a direct move straight to the ball. That (simplification) has allowed him to stay committed to his approach, hunt the tunnel that he's looking for based off the game plan to the pitcher that day. Then, he can just make one move, attack right at the baseball, keep his path and barrel direction going right up the big part of the field.”

Already this season, Walker has set new career highs in homers and RBI, topping the 16 long balls he hit in 2023 and the 51 runs he drove in as a rookie.

Chenoweth loves seeing Walker smile and have fun again because that’s a far cry from where the young slugger was mentally last July when Walker was sent to Double-A Springfield to work with him. At that time, Walker had missed big-league games with a right wrist injury and an appendicitis that sapped him of much of his strength. Also, there was this: Walker was hitting just .210 with three home runs and 23 RBI at the end of June of 2025.

“That was a tough situation because he was coming back from appendicitis and, also he wasn't having the season that he felt like he could be having,” said Chenoweth, who was a driving force behind Springfield winning the Texas League title last season. “When he came to me, it was a situation where I had to meet him where he was at mentally. I tried to come into it open and freely so I could listen to what he was feeling and kind of be there almost like a psychiatrist.

“I was trying to help him out and let him to relax and just remember that he's an unbelievably talented and special player and human being – really, a phenomenal person who is tooled out with some of the highest speeds and the hardest-hit balls in this game. All that happened because he's strong and capable of doing it.”

Chenoweth’s work on simplifying Walker’s swing has had some tangible results in his hit profile. Walker’s ground ball rate in 2026 (40.7 percent) is significantly lower than it was in 2025 (47.5 percent), 2024 (50 percent) and 2023 (46.9 percent). His barrel rate (from 10.9 percent to 13.7 percent), hard-hit rate (50 percent to 52.2 percent) and squared-up rate (18.1 percent to 22 percent) has all jumped significantly in 2026.

Advanced analytics also show that Walker positions himself closer to the plate, his feet are closer together, his stance is significantly more relaxed and closed and his hands are lower. Again, all simple changes that have resulted in a big difference, Chenoweth noted.

“It’s all been about making sure that he's able to be in a good position to hit and be on time for the fastballs that he wants,” Chenoweth said. “His swing has adjustability, so his bat path can actually get the ball more on a line and use all sides of the field. Simple changes and they are working for him.”

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