Nolan Gorman’s season looked headed in a rough direction when the Cardinals sent him to Triple-A earlier this year. At that point, the numbers told a tough story: a .194/.280/.318 line, seven home runs, 26 RBIs and 74 strikeouts across 62 games. He was scuffling badly enough that people were openly wondering if he had already played his last major league game in a Cardinals uniform.
The trade deadline only added to that uncertainty. Reports said St. Louis would at least gauge what kind of return Gorman might bring, but the 26-year-old slugger stayed put and was not dealt.
He’s still in Triple-A now, and on the surface the overall line doesn’t scream progress. In 37 games there, Gorman has hit .182/.329/.447 with 11 home runs, 24 RBIs and 56 strikeouts. But the recent stretch is where the picture changes.
Since Aug. 1, Gorman has gone .267/.371/.767 with a 1.138 OPS, five home runs, nine RBIs, five walks and 11 strikeouts in eight games. Stretch it back to July 21, and he’s at .242/.356/.645 with a 1.001 OPS, eight home runs, 15 RBIs, 11 walks and 22 strikeouts in 17 games.
The strikeouts are still there, and that remains part of the conversation. They’re going to show up with a hitter who brings this kind of power, though the ideal version of Gorman trims them down some.
Even so, the encouraging sign is simple: he’s making more contact and doing more damage when he does. Before the demotion, he was missing too much, not driving the ball often enough and not getting on base. Since Aug. 1, the ball has been leaving the yard again, the walks have come, and the overall impact has been much better.
That’s enough to at least keep the door open on a return to the majors this season, potentially to help at third base. He still has to prove he can keep it going with more consistency, but if August looks like this for much longer, the Cardinals may have a decision to make.
In Other News...
Miles Mikolas May Have Reached A Tough End Cardinals Fans Know Well
Miles Mikolas latest stop in Washington has come to an abrupt end, with the Nationals designating the 37-year-old right-hander for assignment after a difficult season. Signed to a one-year deal, Mikolas never found much traction on the mound and was squeezed out as the club pushed further into a youth movement, leaving his future unsettled once again.
For Cardinals fans, it is a familiar storyline involving a pitcher who once looked like a stabilizing presence but has spent the later stretch of his career trying to hold onto a rotation spot. Mikolas made 24 appearances this season and finished with a 3-9 record and a 5.89 ERA, numbers that tell the story of a veteran whose margin for error has grown thin. What comes next will matter, because at this stage of his career, every opening is harder to find and even harder to keep. [Read more 🡒]
Former Cardinal Reignites Busch Stadium Debate Cardinals Fans Know Too Well
Busch Stadium has long carried a reputation as a place where offense can die on the warning track, and the conversation around that hasnt gotten any quieter with a few Cardinals hitters lately seeing potential home runs stay in the yard. The park is known as pitcher-friendly, which has only kept the old debate alive about whether the setting does enough to help the lineup and whether the club ought to think about changing the dimensions to create a little more offense.
Matt Carpenter added fresh fuel to that familiar argument in a recent interview, revisiting a complaint Cardinals fans have heard before from players who felt the park worked against their swings. It is the kind of comment that tends to linger around this franchise because it taps into a larger question the team has never fully answered, even if there is still no official sign that any changes are coming. [Read more 🡒]