Jordan Walker rallies to win Home Run Derby
St. Louis Cardinals' Jordan Walker holds the trophy after he won the MLB baseball All-Star Home Run Derby, Monday, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jordan Walker wore his Cardinals hat backward, chewed a big wad of bubble gum and wore the top of his jersey splayed open as he dug in for his final Home Run Derby swing.
The picture of Cardinals cool, Walker chased down Kyle Schwarber, shut up a rambunctious Philly crowd and introduced himself to a much wider baseball world.
Walker used six swings to swat six homers, besting Schwarber in a dramatic final round that silenced all those boo birds Monday night and made him the first St. Louis Cardinal to win the Home Run Derby.
Schwarber hit 11 homers during his 15-swing turn in the final round. Philly fans, who jeered everyone but Schwarber and Bryce Harper throughout the night, quietly headed toward the exits when Walker’s winning shot soared over the left field wall.
“I was once told you don’t boo nobodies,” Walker said. “So it feels pretty good.”
The 24-year-old Walker sported the Derby champions’ chain, slipped on a leather jacket and still wore his batting gloves as he broke down what it took to take down Schwarber on his home turf. He earned a $1 million prize for winning the Derby, which is more than his 2026 salary of $799,400.
“My thought was Philly is brutal,” Walker said. “I mean, honestly. But I think it’s pretty special because they love their players and that’s what you want from your home, like, where you play. I mean, I’d never hear people cheer so loud for, like, Schwarber and Harper. And those guys did their thing, for sure.
“But, you know, I can’t hate them, because that’s their guy, so I just got to play the game.”
Walker played a pretty great game in the first half for the Cardinals.
Walker is a first-time All-Star and having a breakout season in St. Louis. He already has a career-high 22 homers this season after struggling with a combined 11 over the previous two years.
Those final six in Philly all flying high with Iron Man on his bat are now stamped on the Derby highlight reel.
His cap backward just like Hall of Famer and Derby great Ken Griffey Jr., Walker celebrated with his family immediately on the field. His father rejoiced in recalling how Walker started hitting long home runs when he was 6 years old.
“When things got tough, they were always there in my corner to talk to them about it,” Walker said of his family. “They kept the energy levels high. They kept the feelings high.”
He fulfilled this childhood dream in striking fashion. Walker hit his seventh homer with two swings remaining and his eighth on the next swing to earn bonus swings. Needing to hit four straight homers to win, the right-handed Jordan knocked one off the top of the center field fence 401 feet away. He reached 10 homers and Philly fans booed with all their might, only for Jordan to finish the sensational surge and celebrate as fireworks shot off around him.
“You can’t say enough about how he was able to kind of slow the moment down, too, and lock it in,” said Schwarber, a Derby runner-up for the second time. “All of our fans were we’re raring and trying to will me to it.”
MLB ditched its timed clock this season and returned to a swing format, with each hitter continuing to swing if he went deep on his final one.
Boston’s Willson Contreras, Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, New York’s Ben Rice and Kansas City’s Jac Caglianone, and Chicago White Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami also participated.





