Jordan Walker won’t go down as the most famous baseball player to ever be hurt on a sprinkler in right field during a Major League Baseball game.
That honor belongs to Yankees great Mickey Mantle.
But Walker is the latest, sustaining the bizarre Spring Training injury on Tuesday. The St. Louis Cardinals slugger took a handful of steps to his left to catch a ball in right field, but after throwing it back in, it was clear he noticed something was wrong.
Here is footage of the second-inning play where #STLCards RF Jordan Walker is believed to have experienced pain in his left knee while tracking a fly ball. Walker was removed from the game because of that pain and will undergo further evaluation, per the club. pic.twitter.com/2IqhwRvVig
— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) March 4, 2025
Walker was removed from the game after stepping on the sprinkler head and underwent an MRI on Wednesday, which revealed no structural damage.
The Cardinals plan to sit Walker for a week and then reassess his status.
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The legend of Mantle’s injury features a few gray areas, like whether it was a sprinkler or a drain cover. Either way, we know it happened in Game 2 of the 1951 World Series, his rookie season.
The severe knee damage didn’t stop Mantle from smacking 536 big league home runs, but it may have held him back from showing off his full running prowess that he displayed before reaching the majors.
Walker was a highly regarded prospect himself, but he has sputtered of late, and this certainly doesn’t help. The 6-foot-6 righty had a .787 OPS as a rookie, but that dropped to .619 in 2024. He is 2-for-14 so far this spring.
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