It's time for the Cardinals to make the tough decision with their young slugger

While the St. Louis Cardinals have received criticism from fans and media alike regarding their handling of a different young slugger in Jordan Walker this year, no one can say the Cardinals have not been patient with second baseman Nolan Gorman this year.

Fresh off a really encouraging rookie year where Gorman was 35% above league average or better for 72% of his plate appearances, those slumps that Gorman would endure in the other 28% of his opportunities have grown to the majority of his at-bats, and at this point, the Cardinals need to remove him from their roster in favor of some productive right-handed bats.

Before I get into this, let me start by saying that I am not giving up on Gorman. I really like him as a player. I think he has so much talent and we've already seen him make good on his promise for prolonged stretches. The Cardinals would be foolish, in my opinion, to just cast him off long-term. But for the immediate future, Gorman is doing more harm than good on this roster.

Let's go through the timeline of events that has been Gorman's 2024 campaign.

• Gorman had a slow start to the year, posting just a 72 wRC+ as the Cardinals' offense as a whole struggled in March/April of the season.
• The month of May was incredible for Gorman, as he slashed .242/.359/.561, good for a 157 wRC+ over 78 plate appearances. Signs of life were finally there, and while more slumps were expected to come, it looked like Gorman figured out how to channel those hot streaks again for prolonged stretches.
• Gorman was dreadful during the month of June though, slashing .141/.209/.323, good for a 49 wRC+ while striking out 38.2% of the time over 110 plate appearances.
• From July 2nd to July 8th, Gorman slashed .478/.500/.739 with a .714 BABIP while his strikeout rate sat at 33% and walk rate was at 4.2% in just 24 plate appearances.
• Since July 8th, Gorman's slash line has dropped back down to the lows from June, slashing .130/.184/.304 while striking out 49% of the time.

Last year, I was pretty bullish on just how good Gorman was when he wasn't slumping. If you look at Gorman month by month last year, he was 35% above league average or better in four of the six months he played, with one horrible month (June again) and one below-average month. In Gorman's good months, he was able to draw a walk in 11.5%-16.3% of his plate appearances while striking out less than 30% of the time in all but one of those elite months. In 2024, he's only managed a BB% of above 10% in just one month (May) and has struck out between 34.2%-44.9% of his at-bats month to month this season.

It's just different now. Gorman's struggles are not just a few weeks long here or there, he's basically just been bad since the beginning of June. And with how much this Cardinals' lineup is struggling this season, they cannot afford to stick him in the lineup daily and hope for the best.

The Cardinals seem to know this too. Gorman is getting fewer and fewer starts as of late, and manager Oliver Marmol clearly does not trust him as a weapon off the bench. On Friday, Marmol went to Brandon Crawford with the bases loaded against Hector Neris. While going to Crawford in general was a bad decision, Marmol did not even bring up Gorman as a player under consideration for that spot, instead saying he favored Crawford over Michael Siani and Matt Carpenter.

With how bad the Cardinals are against left-handed pitching this year, they cannot afford to have three lefties on their bench right now, and for the one that is supposed to make the greatest impact, Gorman, is not being trusted against right-handed pitching. Maybe this recent "benching" will act as a reset for him, but if it doesn't, the Cardinals must consider making better use of that roster spot.

Now, there is a path where the Cardinals could keep Gorman up in St. Louis and bring up right-handed bats, but that would require them sending Victor Scott II or Pedro Pages back down to Memphis, or designating one or both of Matt Carpenter and Brandon Crawford for an assignment, but none of those things appear to be on the table right now.

Ivan Herrera, Thomas Saggese, or possibly even one of Luken Baker or Jordan Walker make way more sense for this roster right now. Herrera has been impactful at the plate for St. Louis this year, posting a .279/.340/.378 slash line in his 192 plate appearances, and his 127 wRC+ at Memphis since being demoted show he's still ready to contribute. Saggese has had a down 2024 season for the most part, but since July 1st, things have gone a lot better for him.

Now, I think there is more risk with Saggese than someone like Herrera or Baker. Saggese's never been a huge walk guy, so when he's not swinging a hot bat, he doesn't have that plate discipline to lean back on. During this hot stretch, he's been on, his BABIP is north of .400 and his strikeout rate is sitting at 25.9%. We all saw how much Masyn Winn struggled in his brief cup of coffee last year after setting Memphis on fire, so there is no guarantee that Saggese would have success himself.

Baker's bat makes more sense than Gorman's right now but his lack of positional versatility is hard to fit in on a bench that already has Matt Carpenter and a backup catcher on it. Walker has been really good over the last 10 or so days with Memphis, but I'd much rather let him continue to hit down there for a longer stretch before calling him up and seeing if it's legit.

Regardless, the time appears to be now for St. Louis to make a roster move. The margin for error with this team is getting thinner and thinner as the days go on. They have to get ruthless with their roster decisions - whether that means sending down Gorman, Pages, or Scott II, or saying "Thanks for the good vibes but we are good now" to Carpenter and/or Crawford.

If Mozeliak doesn't take action soon, the club could certainly dig themselves a hole again that's too deep to climb out of. I do not see the Cardinals having an awful stretch like they did to begin this season, but even just slightly below .500 baseball is damaging to their chances when the rest of the National League Playoff picture seems to be getting stronger and stronger.