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Somewhere between the photos he took with them and the hugs he gave to them, Jordan Walker fielded a familiar question from a swarm of elementary schoolers during a recent Cardinals Caravan stop in Memphis. It’s the same one the team is wondering as it rests part of its “reset” squarely on his shoulders and the commitment to him as their right fielder.

How many home runs will he hit?

Walker flipped the question on the kids.

How many did they want him to hit?

He heard all sorts of requests — 77, no, no 200 — and one shouted, “500.”

“No pressure,” Walker laughed, recalling the exchange. “Just break all the records.”

His grin said it all.

On Sunday at the club’s annual Winter Warm-Up, Walker spent 20 minutes talking with the media in a conversation that was part show-and-tell, part news conference and part pep rally. He enthusiastically described — no, no, showed — a change he’s made to his swing. He raved about working with the new hitting coach Brant Brown. He marveled at the drills coach Jon Jay introduced him to in the outfield, and he shrugged as he explained, yeah, he’s trying a sauna as part of his workout recovery. He used the modifier “super-excited” at least three times. And he did not stop smiling.

“Really that’s what hitting is about — is feeling good,” Walker said. “The main focus is getting back to feeling good at the plate.”

Walker’s expressway to the majors hit all the mile makers, from the first-round draft pick to the highly ranked prospect, the thunderous charge through the minors to the strong spring and opening day debut at age 20. It was then that the detours began, the potholes surfaced.

Walker finished his rookie season with 117 games played, 16 homers, a .276 batting average and a .937 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) in his final 125 plate appearances. He was on the upswing — and then that is exactly what he tried to add. The Cardinals wanted Walker to leverage his 6-foot-6, 270-pound size into more power, and that meant more line drives and a swing with more elevation.

Walker insists that he never lost the zeal for the hitting, but it’s hard to see how the results were any fun at all. He seesawed between the majors and minors for 2024 and saw his slugging sag. In the majors, he struck out 50 times in his 164 at-bats. He widened his stance at the plate and moved his hands and the bat back, but at times, he looked uncomfortable.

That’s because, he acknowledged, he was.

“I made changes for the worse, to be honest,” Walker said Sunday. “I got away from some of the things I was good at. As of right now, focusing on those things will lead to a better spring training. I wasn’t happy with spring training. I wasn’t happy with my year. I’m more capable than that. It was more of a feeling last year. I did this because I feel like I can hit the opposite way. But there weren’t true metrics to really support that. Now, it’s my job to carry it, and if I carry it out the right way, I’m going to have a pretty good year.”

‘Data and film’

Shortly after he was hired, Brown visited Walker in Jupiter, Florida, where the outfielder made a home this offseason.

That first day, Brown walked in with two things: “data and film.”

Together, Walker and Brown revisited video from Walker’s swing during his most-productive turn in the majors and his strong Arizona Fall League. When they compared those images to swings from last year, they saw his hands had separated from his body — not just back but also out. During his news conference Sunday, he stopped his answer and said it would just be easier to show, and so he did.

He held his hands up as if gripping a bat and then pulled them back so that they were away from his right shoulder. It was easy to see how the bat had to travel farther, fouling up his timing. How he used his lower half to balance and then catapult was also inconsistent, sometimes rushing to make up that time or slow to engage because of the wider stance.

They agreed.

To make progress with his swing, Walker had to take a step back.

“To really what was I doing in 2023,” Walker said. “What I mean by that is I’ve been working with Brant Brown on trying to get back to kind of my swing. Honestly, in 2024, it’s no secret, I didn’t make a lot of contact — as much contact as I needed. So I wanted to start there. And then as the offseason went, as I get more comfortable with that swing, then we start working on what is going to be the most consistent way for me to hit. Hit line drives. Drive the ball in the gap.”

The swing he knows well is the foundation upon which Walker and Brown plan to build the line-drive swing the player and Cardinals seek.

“To create something new and create something that will be better offensively,” Walker continued. “Going into the league, I didn’t think the player I am was going to be the player I’m going to be if I want to play 15-20 years or so. You’re going to have to change at some point. Figuring it out early, learning it early, what I need to do to change is really good. I’ve still enjoyed the process for sure.”

The feedback has been positive so far. Jay commented how open Walker has been to instruction during their time working together already. Teammates have noted the confidence of Walker’s work in the batting cage. Beyond batting, an emphasis this offseason for Walker has been flexibility and mobility. That’s altered his work in the weight room and also allowed a teammate to introduce him to a sauna for recovery. Walker said he feels more fluid.

“Not in this cold weather,” he joked.

‘Faces for this city’

On Sunday, shortstop Masyn Winn remarked how well Walker is moving and all he’s seen from his close friend. Since the Cardinals drafted them in 2020, Winn and Walker have grown close, and they talk often — sometimes while playing video games — about winning a World Series together.

“We want to both be faces for this city and faces for this franchise,” Winn said. “It will be fun to see him get back to his minor league Jordan Walker. That dude, to this day, was probably the best player I’ve ever seen in person throughout the minor leagues. I think it’s only a matter of time before that translates to the big leagues.”

The fulcrum for Walker’s season and production in the majors is taking his size, his swing, and the authoritative, powerful combo they create and getting his hits off the ground. Walker debuted with a 46.7% ground-ball rate, and that hopped to 50.9% last season. For comparison, teammates Paul Goldschmidt and Willson Contreras had 43% and 41.5% ground-ball rates, respectively. Slugging soars — it comes in the air.

And soon, he’ll get to see what direction all this work takes him.

This coming week, in Florida, Walker knows of some pitchers who will advance their spring prep to facing hitters in live batting practice. Guess who will be looking back at them with a smile?

There are some young fans in Memphis with lofty expectations.

“You can look good in the cage, you can feel good in the cage, and what matters is when you’re facing the actual pitcher,” Walker said. “I think you get a lot more input when you face one, so I’m super-excited for these upcoming days. There are some live (batting practices) going down in Florida, close to where I am. Definitely one of the first ones to step in the box to see how it goes, for sure.”