St. Louis Cardinals: Top prospect Nolan Gorman promoted

ST LOUIS, MO - JUNE 20: Tommy Edman #19 of the St. Louis Cardinals is congratulated after hitting his first career MLB home run in the eighth inning during a game against the Miami Marlins at Busch Stadium on June 20, 2019 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
ST LOUIS, MO - JUNE 20: Tommy Edman #19 of the St. Louis Cardinals is congratulated after hitting his first career MLB home run in the eighth inning during a game against the Miami Marlins at Busch Stadium on June 20, 2019 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

One of the St. Louis Cardinals top prospects is on the rise after a hot start to the minor league season. What is the latest news?

The St. Louis Cardinals pick and choose when to be super aggressive with promoting a prospect and recently, it’s been clear that they are being aggressive with one the team’s top prospects, Nolan Gorman.

Nolan Gorman was drafted last year in the first round by the Cardinals out of Sandra Day O’Connor HS in Arizona and quickly showed why he was deserving of the 19th overall pick in the draft.

Beginning at Johnson City Rookie ball last year, Gorman put up a 1.107 OPS over 38 games with 11 homers before being promoted to Low-A Peoria still at 18 years old.

This was the first aggressive move by the Cardinals and it proved to be a bigger challenge for Gorman. The last 25 games of the year, Gorman hit just .202 and while the six homers he hit there were great, an OPS of just over .700 was proof he was overmatched. At the end of the day, it was an amazing first year for Gorman.

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Starting this year still at Peoria, Gorman got off on a tear in April mashing six homers with an OPS of 1.039. Let’s see if you recognize this though: from May 1st on, he hasn’t been performing quite so well though.

Over his last 90 days, Gorman has an OPS of just under .800 which isn’t bad by any means but move to the last 28 days, and that OPS falls to .662. The power numbers are still there, but the OPS is proof that he is still facing challenges with the pitchers he was facing.

Slump be damned, the Cardinals still have decided to promote the now 19-year-old to High-A Palm Beach.

This promotion came just after the minor league All-Star game which would suggest that this move was planned for a while as now Gorman gets a fresh start in a new league.

With his promotion to the Palm Beach Cardinals, Goran instantly becomes the youngest player in the league which proves how much the Cardinals are pushing him.

Pushing a prospect too hard can torpedo his entire career but I trust that the Cardinals have a plan. If Gorman suffers a setback, he has plenty of time to rebound and Gorman might rise to the challenge of higher competition.

Gorman is currently the 31st prospect in all of baseball and it seems the potential is all there for him to be a star. If his first game is any indication of how he will do in the Florida State League (it’s not) he should be fine as he went 1-2 with two walks in his debut. Keep an eye on this young man.

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