4 Cardinal hitters who will get hot in the month of June

Nolan Gorman

Nolan Gorman is a candidate here for hitters who will get hot because he showed last year that he can go on a torrid stretch where he scorches pitches. Not to toot my own horn, but I advocated for him to be a 2023 All-Star when he had a blistering stretch last year, highlighted by his clutch home run off Dodgers’ left-handed reliever Victor González, at a time when he was not hitting left-handed pitching.

For Gorman to get hot, he needs to (surprise, surprise) cut down on whiffing. It continues to be a problem throughout his professional career. Statcast has Gorman as the number-one ranked player in Whiff%, resulting from getting fooled on different pitches thrown to him in plate appearances. However, when he makes contact, it is hard contact, as Keegan Akin found out last Wednesday at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals have one of the worst barrel percentages in Major League Baseball, but Gorman is an outlier. Not only does Gorman rank in Major League Baseball’s top 15 in Barrel%, but he is also the number-one ranked player in Launch-Angle(LA) - SweetSpot%. Gorman might be experiencing bad baseball luck, as his xwOBA of .342 outweighs his wOBA of .318.

Like the batters mentioned before, Gorman experienced an uptick in his offense in May. Not only has the second baseman homered in three of the last six games, but Gorman raised his paltry OBP from .254 at the beginning of the month to a season-high of .308 as of Sunday. It’s not where the Cardinals want that OBP, but it is a much-needed improvement as the team approaches June 1st. 

Because Gorman has started to hone his gifted power with the bat at this point in the season, he is a candidate who will get hot in June. Perhaps we can see another magnificent tear akin to May 2023.