Potential answer to Cardinals' weakness is on borrowed time in 2026

2025 was a weird year for Nolan Gorman, and the former St. Louis Cardinals first-round and top prospect didn't do himself many favors along the way to help his standing with the club.

He had a hot stretch in the summer that made us wonder if he was putting things together once again, but as Gorman has done so often in his career, things got ice cold for him later in the year. He finished the year slashing .205/.296/.370 with 14 home runs in 402 plate appearances, and his 88 wRC+ was only one point better than his dreadful 2024 campaign. He ended up posting the worst fWAR of his career thus far (-0.2), but given where the Cardinals are as a team right now, he's going to find opportunities once again.

How consistent will those chances be? That'll depend on how he performs, plain and simple. It sounds like Gorman will be taking the reins from Nolan Arenado at third base if Brendan Donovan is traded, but if he is not, Gorman will likely have to fight for at-bats at the DH spot and sprinkle in the infield as opportunities arise.

With that being said, it is in the Cardinals' best interest to see what they have in Gorman while he is still here and while there aren't many better options around right now, as he still owns the tool that no other player on the Cardinals' Major League roster has right now.

Nolan Gorman's power potential means he will still get opportunities with the Cardinals in 2026

Gorman can slug. That has always been his calling card. Even with the extreme lows he has hit over the last two seasons, Gorman still has 74 long balls in 1581 career plate appearances, and as long as he's at the plate, I expect more homers to come.

It feels like an eternity ago now, but 2023 really wasn't all that far back in this timeline. Yes, enough time has passed that we should be skeptical of Gorman getting back to that production, but let's not forget how big an impact he made that season.

In 2023, Gorman's first full big league season, he had the 13th-best HR/FB rate (21.6%) in all of baseball, slugging 27 home runs with 76 RBI in just 464 plate appearances. His 118 wRC+ was tied for 59th in baseball among hitters with at least 450 plate appearances, and his isolated power (.241) ranked 19th among those hitters.

The expected numbers worked in Gorman's favor as well, as he posted a .345 wOBA and an even better .352 xwOBA, with his .498 xSLG also being a few ticks above his actual slugging percentage on the year (.478).

The swing and miss has always been a problem though, and even in his best offensive season by far, he still ranked fifth in all of baseball in K% (31.9%) and posted a near MLB-record worst mark of 37.6% in 2024. It came back down a bit in 2025 (33.8%), but has to get better in 2026 if he is going to have a chance to realize his potential.

Outside of Gorman, where is the power coming from? Ivan Herrera and Alec Burleson have pop, but both sit more in the 20-25 home run range as hitters. Jordan Walker has the tools to be a big home run hitter, but he's got his own issues he needs to figure out as well. Even with how special a hitter JJ Wetherholt may become, we should not expect him to be near the top of home run leaderboards.

In the farm system, Rainiel Rodriguez and Joshua Baez are two rising prospects who could provide answers to that dilemma, but that is in the future, and that's a lot of pressure to place on two prospects to shore up the Cardinals' power woes. Having Gorman find himself at the plate again would be a huge step for the Cardinals (or Walker, for that matter), but I wouldn't recommend anyone holding their breath.

At least to start 2026, I fully expect Gorman to get ample at-bats. But if Donovan remains in town, Herrera doesn't catch often, and/or Lars Nootbaar gets healthy, the pressure will be on Gorman to maintain his spot in the lineup. The power is getting him another chance in 2026, but it is not enough to lay claim to at-bats if the production doesn't quickly follow.