The 20 most important St. Louis Cardinals in 2023: #14 Nolan Gorman
So far in the Redbird Rants countdown of the 20 most important Cardinals for the 2023 season, we have covered the following players.
#15 Jordan Walker.
We will now discuss #14 on our list, Nolan Gorman.
Nolan Gorman was the St.Louis Cardinals' first-round pick in the 2018 MLB draft. He was one of the Cardinals and Major League Baseball's top prospects for the past 4 seasons. In 2021, he switched from third base to second base after the Cardinals acquired Nolan Arenado from the Rockies, and then saw himself make his major league debut in the middle of the 2022 season. We saw some flashes from Gorman in his rookie season, he hit 14 home runs in just 89 games, which was third among National League rookies only behind Oneil Cruz and Michael Harris.
A couple of negatives however with Nolan Gorman were with strikeouts and defense. Swinging and missing happens all the time, more than what most fans want to see, but Nolan struck out in slightly over one-third of his at-bats. He also struggled defensively, with 8 errors and a -5 defensive runs saved in 68 total games at second base last season
Cardinal fans saw the good and what needs to be worked on with Nolan Gorman in 2022, he is expected to have a bigger role in 2023, and show why he was a first-round pick, here's why Gorman will be important to the Cards in 2023.