"Hitting rat" Brant Brown is providing new perspectives to Cardinals batters

Spring Training remains over a month away, but new St. Louis Cardinals hitting coach Brant Brown is wasting no time picking the brains of his team's position players. At Winter Warm-Ups, several young players expressed appreciation of Brown for the information he has provided so far, with outfielder Lars Nootbaar dubbing him a "hitting rat."

The common refrain from players about Brown was admiration of his wealth of knowledge regarding the finer points of hitting. Manager Oli Marmol said that Brown has a knack for being able to speak to different hitters based on what each one needs to work on, specifically mentioning that Jordan Walker has adapted well to Brown's teachings.

Walker, who endured a rough 2024 season after a strong rookie year, is looking to return to what he did in 2023, but with an approach that sprinkles in some of the lessons he learned in 2024. He admitted that some changes he made last season weren't conducive to his hitting style, such as spreading out his stance and moving his hands back in an attempt to hit the ball the other way.

Brown had noted that Walker's hands were too far back, preventing him from getting a consistent swing path. Walker said Brown was in the cage with him earlier in the offseason to work on consistent hand placement, watching Walker take his swings and letting him know when he was creeping back into his habits from 2024.

Brown also told Walker to get the lower half of his body more involved in his swing. Walker said that he would stop himself from putting his lower half fully into his swing and would come out of it quicker than he should have.

Victor Scott, a speedy center fielder competing for a starting job in 2025, said Brown possesses a lot of knowledge about how a hitter's body moves and how to adjust that. According to Scott, he had "loose shoulders," which often caused him to hit lazy pop-ups. Scott said that Brown told him to stay a little tighter to be able to hammer the balls on a line or on the ground.

Just as important as knowing when a player needs some direction is being able to tell when to be more hands-off. Alec Burleson said Brown understood that Burleson just needs a few cues in his swing and isn't doing much to mess with it.

Brown believes in developing rapports with hitters, and to that end, he has used Zoom to hold virtual hitting sessions for players he can't see in person. Others, such as Nootbaar and Nolan Gorman, have sent videos of their swings to Brown to receive feedback.

After the Cardinals slogged through a down season offensively, the team appears determined to fix what went wrong in the batter's box. The rave reviews that Brown is drawing are a good sign that the offense can rebound in 2025.