3 concerning Cardinals stats to monitor, and 2 that should encourage fans

Concerning: 37.3%

If the season ended today, Nolan Gorman would break Chris Davis' infamous single-season strikeout percentage "record" by posting a 37.3% strikeout rate during the 2024 season. Sure, Miguel Sano and Evan White posted K% over 40% in 2020, but that was a shortened season.

Gorman has been bad this year. There is no sugarcoating it. Much of his production is inflated by a couple of short but extremely productive stretches of baseball. But overall on the season, Gorman has been unreliable at the plate, constantly striking out and he's even lost his ability to draw walks at a high rate in the process.

I really like Gorman. I'm not giving up on him as a slugger in this league. I still think he's a guy who should consistently hit over 30 home runs a year and could even get to 40 bombs someday in a single season. He's a valuable member of the Cardinals moving forward, and while he's not untouchable, I'm not in a rush to move on from him if I am the Cardinals.

Gorman's streakiness can be frustrating, but as I wrote about earlier this year, he tends to have more prolonged hot streaks than he does extended cold streaks. But in 2024, I wouldn't even say he's been streaky at all, he's just been in one big long slump that he has only been able to shake for a few days at a time at most.

Personally, I think Gorman could use a trip to Memphis to reset here soon, especially with Walker seemingly ready to come up and produce for the Cardinals. The Cardinals need another productive right-handed bat on this roster, and Walker could be that guy. The Cardinals are not DFAing Brandon Crawford or Matt Carpenter, so Gorman really seems to be the only guy who makes sense to send to Memphis for now. The Cardinals could easily call him back up to St. Louis when September call-ups come in a few weeks, so I don't imagine it being a long stint if he were to go down to Memphis.