Cardinals plan for Nolan Gorman worked, but now it is time to take the kid gloves off

As far as we can tell, the St. Louis Cardinals' plan to rebuild Nolan Gorman from the ground up is finally paying off, but we are well past the point now of handling the young slugger with kid gloves.

Entering play Wednesday, Gorman has posted a .995 OPS over the last 30 days. Over the last 15 days, the OPS jumps up to 1.375. The problem is that Gorman is averaging just over one at-bat per day over those stretches, with just 35 and 16 at-bats apiece during those stretches.

Early in the 2025 season, it made a lot more sense that Gorman was not playing often. Alec Burleson had won the DH job against right-handed pitching over him, Jordan Walker needed everyday at-bats, and once Ivan Herrera looked to be a primary DH this year, it became even more difficult to fit Gorman's bat in the lineup.

But lately, they've run out of excuses not to play him, and it really became a glaring issue over the last week of baseball.

The Cardinals need to take the kid gloves off and let Nolan Gorman play.

I'll come back to this idea in a moment, but the Cardinals being patient in their usage with Gorman earlier this year actually appears to be paying off. My gripe with them is the fact that they still aren't fully unleashing him to show the improvements he appears to have made at the plate.

We all know how bad things were for Gorman at the plate last year, and in spring training and the month of April, it did not look much better. But behind the scenes, Brant Brown and the Cardinals staff were working to get Gorman right once again, and his on-field results as of late seem to show he's figuring something out.

Since May 11th, Gorman is slashing .343/.395/.600 (.995 OPS) with a .257 ISO and 179 wRC+ in his 38 plate appearances. Gorman has dropped his K% by almost 10 points compared to last year (28.9 K%). He looks more and more comfortable at the plate as the season goes on, and there are both mental and mechanical changes that Gorman has made that are unlocking him again at the plate.

I recommend heading over to X to check out this side-by-side comparison of Gorman's mechanics done by @JacobE_STL, as it captures the work he has been doing with his front side to avoid imbalance at the plate.

Gorman has been open about how the infrequent playing time has actually allowed him to focus on his mechanics and process behind the scenes while not worrying about results on the field. In a sense, that is actually a form of runway. Gorman, without the fear of being demoted, basically got to work with the Major League coaching staff each day to rebuild his swing, and when the time was right, he'd be fully unleashed to display that power potential once again.

That time came last week, though, when Jordan Walker hit the injured list, and unfortunately, the Cardinals have continued to sit Gorman against left-handed pitching in favor of Ryan Vilade.

I mean no disrespect to Vilade, but at this point in his career, he is not someone who should be taking opportunities away from someone like Gorman. He should be the "break glass in case of emergency option." Instead, he has received four starts over that stretch, pinch hit for Gorman during games, and been used as a pinch hitter over Gorman in other circumstances.

There was really no excuse not to play Gorman as often as possible during this stretch, but now that Brendan Donovan is dealing with a toe issue, it should all but force the Cardinals' hand for the time being.

I've talked about this before, but Gorman has the kind of power potential that the Cardinals need in their lineup. He adds an element to their offense that frankly no other bat really has, and they'd be foolish not to try and unleash him to see if he's figured things out. On the season, the Cardinals rank 23rd in home runs and 13th in slugging percentage, and Gorman has the kind of power that can raise that ceiling for this club.

Will he run with those opportunities? We'll have to see. So far, in a limited sample size, he has done everything the Cardinals could have asked for and more. But need to see more, and the only way they can do that is by, well, playing Gorman more.