Cardinals' Jordan Walker resides with Aaron Judge in notable MLB leaderboard

Jordan Walker is finally realizing his potential.

And at the moment, the St. Louis Cardinals slugger is residing alongside Yankees superstar Aaron Judge.

They're tied for the MLB lead in home runs with eight apiece before action on Friday, April 17.

Judge, of course, expects to do this.

"Judge has actually only led the Majors in home runs twice, but of all the active power hitters in baseball, he's the one most capable of making us think it's easy," MLB.com wrote in a new article on Friday. "Case in point, through the end of play on April 11, he was tied for 26th in MLB with three home runs; he then lapped everyone but Walker by hitting five home runs in the last five days. An ordinary, healthy Judge season is a 50-homer campaign -- he's basically keeping that pace, slow start and all."

MORE: A magical no-hit bid for the Cleveland Guardians

Walker, after seeming to be a prospect bust, is now becoming the player many thought he might become.

"Walker is a completely different story," MLB.com wrote. "His power on both sides of the ball was what made him MLB Pipeline's No. 4 prospect in 2023; ability was never an issue. Getting all of his talent to translate into actual big league production was much more complicated. He hit 16 home runs as a rookie but between injuries and ineffectiveness never really got a foothold at the Major League level after that; in 2025, his third Major League season, he posted a .306 SLG with six home runs in 111 games, the kind of year that can signal to an organization it's time to move on from a power hitter. And yet, three weeks and 18 games into the 2026 season, he's more consistently hitting the ball in the air and he's already surpassed his home run total from last season -- whether this is an isolated hot start or a sign of things to come is hard to say, but bearing in mind that Walker has yet to turn 24, there's reason for optimism."

MORE: This second-generation relief pitcher is on an absurd wins pace

Walker isn't just hitting for power, either. He's even displaying some of the most unexpectedly impressive sprint speed in baseball.

He's a decade younger than Judge, and actually not that different in age from what Judge was when he first got called up to the major leagues.

There's a lot of time for Walker to potentially prove that this is the real version of him, rather than the guy with the early struggles.

So far, the Cardinals will just appreciate that Walker seems to have taken a major step forward. Any kind of resemblance to Judge at all is clearly a good thing.

More MLB news:

• Explaining the absurdity of 2 MLB players named Max Muncy
• This hitter has a worse OBP than his batting average
• Mets have most depressing stat of this entire MLB season
• This slider is really good and moves the entirely wrong direction
• Sal Stewart breaks Johnny Bench's all-time Reds record