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PHILADELPHIA Casey Chenoweth tuned into the Home Run Derby from his couch in Northwest Arkansas on Monday night.
He didnt need to be on site at the MLB All-Star festivities to know Jordan Walker was locked in.
There Walker stood in the batters box during the championship round, hat backward, chains stacked around his neck, wielding an Iron Man bat.
Advertisement Walker didnt waver as he whacked homer after homer deep into the July night, undeterred by the relentless booing from the Philadelphia faithful as he neared the total of hometown favorite Kyle Schwarber.
Walker needed 11 big flies to tie Schwarber, 12 to become the first St.
Louis Cardinal to win the Home Run Derby.
He sat at six, with two swings left.
Then he unleashed one heck of a run.
Walker barreled six straight homers, capped by a majestic 407-foot blast to win it all.
The comeback marked one of the most memorable derbies in recent memory.
It was absolutely epic, Chenoweth raved during a phone call with The Athletic on Tuesday afternoon.
So cool to see.
Perhaps nobody is better suited to marvel at Walkers recent success than Chenoweth, an assistant hitting coach for the Cardinals and one of Walkers closest confidants in the organization.
He understood Walkers journey, as he fell from a 2020 first-round pick and a top overall prospect to enduring several demotions to the minor leagues amid serious questions regarding his long-term future.
Now, Walkers long-awaited arrival to national baseball prominence is here.
Sparked initially by the spunky first-half play of the Cardinals and fueled Monday night by his dramatic homer barrage, the baseball world is beginning to take note of St.
Louis budding right fielder.
He was able to show the world exactly who he is and what hes capable of, Chenowith said.
Once the face of promise for one of baseballs winningest organizations, Walkers struggles over the first three years of his career instead turned him into the poster child for the Cardinals severely outdated player development system.
It was Chenoweth with considerable help, communication and input from Cardinals assistant general manager Rob Cerfolio, manager Oli Marmol and hitting coach Brant Brown who found a way to break through to Walker when the Cardinals elected to stretch out a rehab assignment with Double-A Springfield last year.
Advertisement The hope was that Walker would benefit from one-on-one instruction under Chenoweth, a minor-league hitting coach at the time.
Walker had all the tools: the swing speed, the exit velocity, the speed, the power.
But he did not have the results.
Perhaps he needed a fresh voice from within the organization.
Almost immediately, Walker took to Chenoweths intentional coaching style.
In return, Chenoweth learned quickly what would resonate with him.
Its fitting, Chenoweth said, that Walkers derby win happened in such fashion.
It was an uphill battle for him for sure, going into that last round, Chenoweth said.
But I think thats kind of been his career.
Back against the wall, a hill to climb.
Walkers ascent comes at a time the Cardinals have fully embraced a youth movement.
Its easy to forget that after all hes endured, Walker is only 24.
There is plenty of time for him to fulfill his potential.
He always believed he would.
I never really doubted that Id be able to do this at some point, Walker said from the dugout tunnel before the American League topped the NL 4-0 in the Midsummer Classic on Tuesday.
It was more like, When is it coming? The marine layer had started to roll over Oracle Park when then-president of baseball operations John Mozeliak acknowledged a looming decision before an early-season game against the San Francisco Giants.
It was April 26, 2023, and the longtime executive was in distress.
His ballclub, fresh off a division championship and a demoralizing first-round elimination, was off to its worst start since 1973.
His roster construction was flawed.
Mozeliak had five outfielders for three spots, with none of them performing.
Among them was Walker, 20 years old and barely three weeks into his major-league career.
We havent gotten off to a good start, Mozeliak said.
The way were doing it isnt working.
Advertisement The next day, the Cardinals optioned Walker to Triple A.
They did so despite Walker having the highest batting average (.274) among the outfielders and an OPS (.718) that was among the best on the team.
But there were warning signs.
Walkers chase rate was ticking up, and most of his contact came on the ground.
The club didnt see a way for Walker to play every day and decided to send him to Triple A the level he skipped when the Cardinals promoted him to the Opening Day roster straight from Double A.
I think we have a real superpower on our hands in Jordan Walker and we have to make sure that were doing whats right for him, which in turn will do whats right for us, Marmol said at the time.
And so began a grueling and turbulent process.
For the better part of the next three seasons, Walkers career was defined by frustration, growing pains and a whole lot of swing-and-miss.
It just didnt come easy, Walker said.
My swing just felt so inconsistent.
I was like, This has to change.
He was optioned to the minors twice in 2024, when he hit .201 with just five homers in the majors.
In 2025, he landed on the injured list twice, the second time after an emergency appendicitis surgery.
Things hadnt fared much better to that point.
Walker was hitting .210/.267/.295, still hammering the ball into the ground instead of the air and flailing at sliders out of the zone.
Walker would need only a handful of days to recover from the surgery, though the Cardinals thought he needed more time to fix his swing.
There were concerns about the ripple effects of another demotion.
Cerfolio, who was in his first year in the Cardinals front office, met the team on a road trip to Pittsburgh in early July looking for a solution.
Position players are allotted up to 20 days in the minor leagues when placed on a rehab assignment.
Walkers injury list designation was legitimate.
Could the Cardinals take advantage of some extra time in the minors without actually optioning Walker? Thats what Cerfolio, Marmol and Brown discussed.
How do we leverage the time that we have, how do we maximize the clock? Cerfolio recalled.
Advertisement The three decided to max out Walkers rehab assignment.
Hed work with Chenoweth every day, with the goal of all parties to be intentional about communication and prep work.
It was a responsibility Chenoweth did not take lightly.
(Walker) was a little frustrated, obviously, with how the last couple years have gone, Chenoweth said.
He always knew what he was capable of.
So, how could the Cardinals get him there? Walkers first two rehab games did not go well.
Rather than risk a third, Chenoweth watched Walker do some cage work and then stopped talking about baseball entirely.
We had plenty of time and a lot of space, and it was just the two of us, Chenoweth said.
I figured this might be the best opportunity just to get to know him, not to just tell him what he has to do or exactly how he needs to swing.
So we sat and created some time to just talk.
That resonated with Walker.
He started to become open-minded to Chenoweths approach, which emphasizes as much player feedback as possible.
We wanted to make sure that if we were running him out into a game, that he was the most prepared, Chenoweth said.
Then after each night, we would jump on the phone or shoot some texts back and forth and be like, OK, how did today go? Lets do a full breakdown.
What did you feel? What did you like? What did you not like? Because there are many ways to do this, but there are infinitely more ways not to do it.
We wanted to make him feel like he was involved, because at the end of the day, its his career.
We want to make him feel like hes in complete ownership of the work that hes putting in and what hes capable of doing.
After a couple of weeks, Walker and Chenoweth were able to steadily relay information to Marmol and Brown.
When Walkers 20 days were up, both he and the organization started to feel optimistic a breakthrough could be coming.
Advertisement Casey communicated in a way that I kind of understood, and then he also translated that communication to the staff, so we were all on the same page, Walker explained.
And then through him, I just kept working and started to feel a little bit better.
Barry Bonds to Jordan Walker: "That was the greatest Home Run Derby I've ever seen." Respect #HRDerby pic.twitter.com/CiCsnNW8II Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) July 14, 2026 The 2025 season ended without much progress on the stat line.
Walker finished with the lowest OPS of his career (.584) and one of the worst strikeout percentages in baseball.
But a significant organizational change took place that offseason.
Mozeliak stepped down, and Chaim Bloom took over announcing plans to focus on the Cardinals long-term future after the team missed the playoffs for three consecutive seasons.
Walker would have another chance at a fresh start.
Chenoweth was promoted to Marmols major-league staff.
Marmol and Brown saw an opportunity for him to continue building with Walker.
I had more trust in opening up conversations through him, through the staff, Walker said.
We got to a spot where I was like, you know what? Let me just be a little bit more free.
Let me stop thinking about my swing so much.
Walker hit his first home run of the season in Game No.
3.
Hes hit 21 more since.
One year and two days after Walker started his program in Springfield, the Cardinals huddled in the visiting clubhouse at Wrigley Field on July 4.
Marmol called a team meeting.
He had a special announcement to make.
Thanks to a breakout season including a league-leading 74 RBI and the top bat speed in baseball Walker would be heading to the All-Star Game.
I cried for sure, Walker said, laughing.
So did a good chunk of the room.
When Walker stood up to address the clubhouse, he looked at his teammates, many of whom had come up through the Cardinals system with him.
The same faces, many of them teary-eyed, were there to support him during some of his darkest times, and now they were there to celebrate one of his brightest.
Advertisement I think it makes it all the more special because they were there the whole time, Walker said.
These same guys were there when I was going through it, getting sent down, called up, sent down.
Then fast-forward through the year, having the honor to be nominated as an All-Star, it was special sharing that moment with them because they understood it, I think, better than anybody.
Back in St.
Louis, momentum is building.
An embittered fanbase is seeing reason to buy back into its team.
Give this baseball town something to show up for, and it will.
It starts with the newly minted All-Star right fielder.
And its long overdue.
Whats so cool about this story is that he just never quit and the organization never quit, Cerfolio said.
When these young, talented kids get (called) up early and they dont have immediate success, people are really quick to just write them off.
They forget that this is a 23-year-old kid thats still learning.
I think we all really believed in him, and we were all just kind of trying to figure it out, Chenoweth added.
In what was supposed to be a lost season focused on the future, Walker has given St.
Louis a reason to be excited.
Hes becoming the superstar he was destined to be.