ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Cardinals right fielder Jordan Walker and left handed pitcher Zack Thompson have both started the 2024 regular season off to extremely slow starts.
Now, the Cardinals are sending both down to the minors a reset, as the club announced before the series finale against the Diamondbacks that Walker and Thompson have both been optioned down to Triple-A Memphis. Infielder Jose Fermin and left handed reliever John King have been called up.
Walker has had an extremely rough start to the season, with the former number one prospect in baseball only slashing .155/.239/.497 slash line with only nine hits and no home runs to begin the season.
While much focus on Walker heading into his sophomore season was focused on his defense, which has been serviceable to begin the season, generating a defensive runs saved (DRS) of one so far, the bat has been slow to get moving.
The demotion will be a chance for Walker to reset and work to fix his swing until his eventual return to the Cardinals major league club at some point later on this season.
Thompson was supposed to be in the fight for a rotation spot after a solid end to his 2023 campaign, putting a solid 4.38 ERA and 4.01 FIP after he was moved into the rotation to end the season.
While Thompson was able to make the 2024 rotation due to the injury of Sonny Gray to begin the year, his short stint as a starter this season was a disaster, allowing eight runs and four home runs through 10 innings in his only two starts so far this season.
Thompson was moved back into the bullpen after Gray returned to the rotation, and in his final bullpen outing before his demotion, Thompson allowed seven runs and two home runs in 2.2 innings during the D-Backs blowout 14-1 victory against the Cardinals.
Cardinals manager Oli Marmol called out Thompson during his weekly interview with KMOX's Total Information A.M., minutes right before the annoucement before the demotion.
"If we were saying someone had their stuff and someone didn't, Thompson didn't have his stuff Tuesday," said Marmol. "We continue to talk about the variance in his velocity, it's 92 mph one day, 94 another, back to 90, then 89 and that's what gets him in trouble. He's a different pitcher when you don't have to gear up for the real fastball."
"(Tuesday) he left a lot of stuff over the plate, breaking ball was at times ok, but it was just popping out the hand, hitters was having comfortable at bats against him. That was hard on Thompson. It wasn't his best day."
