Jordan Walker looks young again.

That’s not to say that the St. Louis Cardinals‘ right fielder actually got old, but he did precipitously drop off from his phenom prospect status.

This season, Walker looks like that kid who had all the hype in the first place.

And one number, at least to an extent, can sum it up: 97.7 miles per hour.

That’s Walker’s exit velocity entering action on Friday, April 3. It’s ranked No. 5 in all of MLB.

And while it won’t stay that high the entire season, Walker has clearly discovered something with his swing that is allowing him to more consistently hit the ball hard.

It’s not that Walker didn’t make solid contact in his past, but something was missing: the actual contact.

And really, Walker needed to be more selective in the first place to reach this kind of power.

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His trend from last season to this, with small sample size acknowledged, is encouraging.

Last season, Walker chased pitches out of the zone 34.1% of the time, and he swung-and-missed 35.6% of the time.

This season, Walker has chased out of the zone 25.0% of the time, and has whiffed 28.9% of the time.

Those are big enough changes that Walker can more consistently do damage, to the point that if he keeps it up, he can go from a fringe MLB player to a feared slugger.

It’s still early, and things can change, but don’t look away yet.

Walker is also running 28.9 miles per hour in average sprint speed, which ranks in the 97th percentile in MLB and would be a massive addition to his game if it keeps up.

Something has led to Walker taking a better approach to his game this season. Whatever it is, it’s a big deal.

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