Now is the ideal moment to see if Nolan Gorman can balance his sophisticated approach with his home run swing, as the St. Louis Cardinals are in dire need of some power in their lineup and Jordan Walker will be out for at least the next week due to injury.
For the sixth time since May 14th, Gorgman will start at the designated hitter position tonight when he bats eighth for St. Louis.
The Cardinals are currently 25th in baseball in terms of home runs (52), only surpassed by the Miami Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Kansas City Royals, following this weekend’s series against the Texas Rangers. The Cardinals don’t have many home runs at the moment for a reason: they don’t have big-time power hitters in their lineup. However, bats like Willson Contreras and Ivan Herrera may undoubtedly increase their own power and strengthen that team weakness.
By the end of the season, Contreras, Herrera, Lars Nootbaar, Alec Burleson, Masyn Winn, Brendan Donovan, and maybe even Nolan Arenado will have reached the 20+ home run club, but they will not be able to match the power that other baseball offenses have in their lineups.
Nootbaar, who currently leads the club with eight round trippers on the year, is tied for 66th in baseball in home runs. Yikes. Not yikes that Nootbaar has eight home runs — it’s a respectable figure for him at this time in the year — but yikes that the club can’t claim more power than that.
Gorman is one of the Cardinals’ players who has the potential to be that bat, but I can’t say that I’m sure he’ll supply that power either.
Now is the perfect time for the Cardinals to unleash Nolan Gorman and see if he can bring power to their lineup
Jordan Walker won’t be available for the Cardinals until at least June 7th, so St. Louis will have at least this upcoming baseball week to see whether Gorman can make an impact at the plate.
Things have continued to fall south for Gorman this year, as the lefty slugger is hitting only .189/.283/.300 in 106 plate appearances and has hit just one long run on the season. Yeah, not good. But let’s face it, he’s now averaging 7–10 at-bats a week, and if he’s not playing much, it’s difficult to see how he’ll get out of this slump.
However, there are some encouraging findings from Gorman’s limited sample size. Since last year, he has reduced his K% on fastballs by 15% and his Whiff% on fastballs by about 10%. He’s whiffing on 3% less of the sliders he’s seen and striking out on 7% fewer of them. He has also shown significant progress in his ability to handle curveballs and change-ups, reducing his strikeout percentage on those pitches by 11.3% and 17.9% and his whiff rate by 22.1% and 4.4%, respectively.
Gorman is striking out just 10.2% of the time and whiffing on 9.7% fewer pitches overall this season. His walking rate has increased from 8.5% in 2024 to 12.3% in 2025, placing him 35th among eligible batters this season. No, I’m not claiming that Gorman will make a comeback or even become a good hitter again, but he has made significant progress in resolving his most pressing problem thus far, so perhaps regular playing time would enable him to use his power while swinging and missing far less than he did previously.
The Cardinals’ offense has been struggling lately, and with 28 games in 29 days in June, they will need to use their whole bench to keep players healthy and get this offense to perform at a crucial part of the season. Again, with Walker out right now, this is the perfect opportunity to throw Gorman out there and let him sink or swim offensively, but I do expect that to increase his potential playing time.
Gorman can be incorporated into the lineup in a few different ways, and if the Cardinals combine these strategies, it should be easy to get him in there consistently over the coming weeks.
- First, let Ivan Herrera catch more than once or twice a week. I’m not saying make him the full-time catcher, but even three starts behind the plate can turn into one additional start for Gorman. Pedro Pages’ game calling and arm behind the plate have been assets for this club, but playing Gorman is just as much about helping the club slug this year as it is about learning if he’s a part of the club long term.
- Second, work in some off days for different position players during this marathon of games ahead of them. Nolan Arenado has not been right offensively this year, so why not schedule one day off per week? Maybe sit one or two of Nootbaar, Contreras, Burleson, or Scott per week as well. If Oliver Marmol does all of these things, then there may be 5-7 starts per week freed up for Gorman to jump in and show if he’s worth those opportunities.
I’m not advocating that the Cardinals should make him their regular player going forward, but I also fail to see how his current sparse playing time is beneficial. I completely realize how difficult it is for Marmol when Walker is well, which is why I’m telling them to seize the chance that is being presented to them. While Walker is gone, give Gorman a run, and in the week or two that follows, keep working him in more often than they have. You won’t hear me requesting to see Gorman either if June turns out to be just another pedestrian month.
However, I believe we can all agree that Gorman would be a huge benefit to this Cardinals lineup, which may need to play every day, if he could regain even 70% of the power barrage for which we first knew him in 2023. When Gorman is right, he can change the course of a game with a single swing, and when he is truly right, he can generate hits that rank among the top five in all of baseball.
Check out the tweet’s date. That was in 2024. Indeed, I neglected to even go back at 2023, when Gorman had three HR in September/October with a 145 wRC+, seven HR in May with a 155 wRC+, seven HR in July with a 152 wRC+, and six HR in March/April with a 135 wRC+. Gorman had a 25-day run last year when he was at his worst at the plate, ranking first in all of baseball in wRC+, fWAR, SLG, OPS, HR, R, and WPA, second in OBP and RBI, and third in AVG.
The Cardinals must continue to turn to Gorman as much as possible while he is still available because his fiery power has the potential to completely change this lineup. He may find himself moving on to a new franchise at the trade deadline if he doesn’t seize his chances this month and into early July. For now, though, they may as well see if Gorman has what it takes, even though the Cardinals are playing at a high level and their record is far better than any of us anticipated.
And if Gorman were to succeed somewhere, you know who would be the first to shout and scream at the Cardinals? These are the same individuals who currently maintain that Gorman should never work with this lineup. It can’t be both ways.
The Cardinals’ use of Gorman’s playing time during Walker’s absence and upon his return will be interesting to watch. Gorman’s inclusion in the starting lineup tonight is encouraging, but we’ll have to wait and see if they’ll give him the playing time he needs.
