Jordan

Walker

Walker had a pretty quiet two series against the Guardians and Astros last week, but he’s still getting a knock every day; he’s now hit in 16 straight, though the last six of those have all been one-hit games. Of course, he’ll continue to fade some from his current .306/.372/.635 line, but there’s still good reason for fantasy leaguers to be optimistic going forward, one being that he’s now 4-for-4 stealing bases.

It comes in a losing effort, but it’s another impressive outing for Walker. His eighth homer of the season came in the sixth inning off Gavin Williams, and it would have left every park in baseball according to Baseball Savant with an exit velocity of 107.6 mph. Yes the sample is small, and yes, Walker’s previous struggles can’t completely be ignored, but this is a 23-year-old with some of thes best bat-speed in the sport who has flashes his unreal talent even in his poor campaigns. This has been fun to watch. The question is if he can be a semblance of this player for the rest of 2026/beyond.

This is pretty ridiculous now. Walker has more homers in 15 games this year than he did in 51 games in 2024 (five) and 111 games last season (six). He’s still striking out plenty, so the early .327 average isn’t going to stick around. Still, he seems like a different player; he’s always tended to make hard contract, but now that hard contact is turning into liners and big flies instead of grounders to short.

It was a true three-outcome game for Walker, who walked once, struck out twice, and hit a 429-foot home run off Garrett Whitlock that left the bat at 109.6 mph. Walker has all kinds of power and is now up to six home runs on the season. There remain some swing-and-miss concerns in his game, but he put in plenty of work to fix his swing path and overall hitting mechanics this offseason, and something seems to have clicked. If you can get a dependable, high-end fantasy contributor in a trade for him, you can feel free to shop Walker, but this is not some ticking time bomb that you need to get away from. There is legitimate breakout potential.

Walker smacked a one-out single off of Connelly Early in the third inning but wound up stranded on second base. He then started the go-ahead rally with a one-out single off of Zack Kelly in the fifth and raced around to score on an RBI single by Thomas Saggese. With his two-hit attack, the 23-year-old former top prospect is now slashing a healthy .313/.377/.667 with five homers, 12 RBI and a stolen base in 53 plate appearances to start the 2026 season.

There is absolutely no stopping Walker right now. He launched a hanging slider from Brad Lord over the center field fence to push his home run total up to six on the season. That’s tied for the league-lead as of Wednesday afternoon and is just one shy of the six he hit in 111 games all of last season. This is far and away the most sustained power he’s ever had. On top of that, his swing decisions have trended way up and there seems to be a meaningful adjustment to his bat path that’s finally allowed him to lift that ball. Remember, he’s still only just 23 years old. It’s wheels up for Walker.

Walker has been one of the biggest disappointments in fantasy baseball — much of that due to having an outrageous amount of hype, deserved though it might have been — but the breakout season just might be coming. Yes, we know there’s still 150-plus games left to go. Walker hit his fourth homer of the season, and he’s now up to 11 RBI in 11 games with an OPS of 1.014. It’s understandable why some may be skeptical, but it’s never been a question of talent with Walker. He appears to finally be applying that talent at the highest level.

Walker continued his strong stretch of production to start the year with a 378-foot opposite-field home run that left the bat at 104.4 mph. He also had a 115.2 mph lineout during the game as well. Walker is just 23 years old and has flashed big upside before. He has also made a clear swing change this season, not only changing his stance in the box but also modifying his swing path and attack angle. It’s unclear if this will stick, but given how much upside Walker has, he’s worth adding in all league types.

Walker has gotten off to a phenomenal start at the dish, hitting .300 (9-for-30) with two homers, eight RBI and one steal over nine games to open the season. He went 1-for-3 with a walk on Sunday against the Tigers following a three-hit effort the previous afternoon that included a gargantuan 459-foot grand slam. It’s too small of a sample size to say definitively that the 23-year-old former top prospect is finally putting it all together, but the early returns have been positive as he’s posted a near-elite 97.1 average exit velocity and stratospheric 71 percent hard-hit rate so far. He’s shown enough to be rostered in all fantasy formats until further notice.

Is the breakout finally happening? It’s way too soon to say anything definitive, but the early returns have been extremely encouraging. Walker’s fifth-inning grand slam off Tigers reliever Drew Anderson left his bat at 113.7 mph and traveled 459 feet into the left-field seats. It was his first career grand slam and trimmed St. Louis’ deficit to a single run at the time. The 23-year-old former top prospect’s three-hit performance raised his early-season batting average to .296 with two homers and eight RBI through eight games.