Just Say No: The Cards Should Resist the Nolan Gorman Temptation

ARMCHAIR GM — The Cardinal Chronicle
Just Say No: The Cardinals Should Resist the Nolan Gorman Temptation
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

There’s always a temptation with Nolan Gorman — one swing is all it takes to believe again.

There always has been.

One swing can make you believe again.

A baseball launched into the night can make the memory of strikeouts fade. A hot week in Memphis sparks calls for his return: bring him back, give him another chance, the Cardinals need power. What’s the harm?

That is the wrong question.

The better question is this:

What has actually changed?

Until the answer is more than “he hit another home run,” the Cardinals should just say no.

Not forever.

Not because Nolan Gorman cannot still become a useful major league hitter.

Not because the power is fake.

But because the problem that sent him to Triple-A has not been solved yet.
Gorman was optioned to Memphis on June 12 after one of the roughest offensive stretches of his career. He was hitting .194 with a .598 OPS and had struck out 74 times in 201 at-bats. The demotion wasn’t about fatigue or frustration — it was about at-bats that had become too fragile, too predictable, too easy for major league pitching to exploit.

That is the part that cannot be skipped.

Power was never the question with Gorman.

He can hit a baseball as far as almost anyone in the organization. That is why the Cardinals have given him so much runway. That is why fans keep coming back to the possibility. Left-handed power is not easy to find, and Gorman has shown enough of it at the major league level to keep the door open.

But power without enough contact becomes a tease.

That is where the Cardinals have to be honest.

The issue is not whether Gorman can run into a fastball in Memphis. He can. The issue is whether he can build a repeatable enough swing and approach to survive against major league pitching over time.

Right now, that answer is still not clear enough.

The strikeout problem has followed him to Triple-A — and that matters. A demotion shouldn’t be a holding pattern; it’s meant to be a reset. The goal isn’t to watch for a few home runs before sending him back to St. Louis. It’s to change the shape of the at-bat.

That means fewer empty swings.

Better decisions on pitches outside the strike zone.

More contact on hittable fastballs.

A plan against breaking balls.

A swing path that gives him more than one way to do damage.
Until those things improve, a recall is not a solution.

It is just a rerun.

The Cardinals have already seen this movie too many times. Gorman gets hot. The power shows up. The strikeouts pile up. The cold stretch gets ugly. The batting average disappears. The pressure builds. Then the club is right back to the same question it has been asking for years.

Can Nolan Gorman make enough contact to let the power matter?

That question does not get answered by one home run.

It gets answered by weeks of better at-bats.

That is why Memphis should remain the assignment.

The Cardinals do not need a quick spark right now. They need clarity. That is an important difference.

Before the trade deadline, a team in the thick of a playoff push might talk itself into rushing Gorman back because it needed one more left-handed bat. That argument was thin even then, but at least it had some urgency behind it.

Now the context has changed.

The Cardinals sold at the deadline. They moved veterans and short-term pieces. They added future value. They made it clear that this season is about evaluation, reshaping the roster and building toward the next competitive window.

That makes rushing Gorman even harder to justify.

If the Cardinals are evaluating the future, then evaluate the players who need major league reps.

Blaze Jordan deserves a longer runway.

That does not mean Jordan is the answer at third base. It does not mean he has won the job. It does not mean the Cardinals should hand him anything. But the organization called him up when Gorman went down, and now it needs to learn something.

Can Jordan handle enough at third base?

Can his right-handed bat play?

Can he make adjustments?

Can he be part of the next roster?

Those questions require at-bats.

Calling Gorman back too soon only crowds the picture again.

That’s been part of the Cardinals’ problem for too long: too many players, too many partial evaluations, too many moving pieces — too many times trying to save one player while evaluating another.

At some point, the organization has to stop juggling and start learning.

Let Jordan play.

Let Gorman work.

That is not punishment.

That is development.

And frankly, it may be the best thing the Cardinals can do for Gorman.

He does not need another quick trip back to St. Louis where every strikeout becomes a referendum and every hitless night becomes another debate. He needs time away from the noise. He needs consistent work. He needs the freedom to make adjustments without the major league scoreboard punishing every mistake.

This should be treated as a career correction.

Not a timeout.

Not a slap on the wrist.

Not a message.

A correction.

The Cardinals have to decide what Gorman is going to be. Is he still a third baseman? Is he a platoon power bat? Is he a first base/DH option? Is he part of the future, or is the best path rebuilding enough value to explore the winter trade market?

None of those answers become clearer by rushing him back before the swing-and-miss is under control.

The trade-value question matters, too.

Gorman’s value is not high right now. That is obvious. If the Cardinals explored moving him around the deadline, they were almost certainly doing it at a discount. Teams do not pay premium prices for a player who just hit .194 in the majors and is still striking out heavily in Triple-A.

So do not sell low.

But also do not pretend a couple of Memphis home runs rebuild the entire market.

The way Gorman regains value is by showing a sustainable approach. That means better contact. Better swing decisions. Better balance. Better results over a longer stretch. If that happens, the Cardinals can revisit the question in the offseason from a stronger position.

Maybe they keep him.

Maybe they trade him.

Maybe he comes to spring training with a real chance to win a role again.

But that decision should be based on progress, not impatience.

The hardest part of this is separating the player from the idea of the player.

The idea of Nolan Gorman is still attractive.

A left-handed hitter with 30-homer power who can play third base or second base is exactly the kind of player every team wants. That idea is why the Cardinals have been patient. It is why fans still see the ceiling. It is why nobody should be eager to throw him away.

But the actual player, right now, is still fighting the same battle.

Too much swing-and-miss.

Too low of a floor.

Too much dependence on the home run.

Too many at-bats where pitchers appear to know how to get him before the count even begins.

That is not a player you recall just because the major league roster has room.

Room is not a reason.

Need is not a reason.

Power flashes are not a reason.

Progress is the reason.

When Gorman starts showing that the at-bats have changed, then the conversation changes. When he strings together consistent contact, controls the zone, handles spin better and forces pitchers to beat him in more than one way, then the Cardinals should revisit it.

Until then, the answer should be no.

Just say no to the panic recall.

Just say no to chasing a quick power fix.

Just say no to repeating the same cycle and expecting a different result.

Let him earn the next recall with more than a home run total.

Because if the Cardinals are serious about fixing the roster, they have to be serious about fixing the player.

And with Nolan Gorman, that means patience now.

Not panic.

Not nostalgia.

Not another quick reset.

Just say no.

For now.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Nolan Gorman, Memphis Redbirds | MLB