Should we be worried about Cardinals infielder Nolan Gorman?

St. Louis Cardinals infielder Nolan Gorman was placed in the sixth spot on Saturday afternoon's matchup against the Washington Nationals, and he was starting at second base. There's a strong possibility this is where he will find himself on March 27th against the Minnesota Twins on Opening Day.

The 24-year-old infielder is entering his fourth season in the majors, and team president of baseball operations John Mozeliak has been adamant all offseason that Gorman is a player who will be getting as many reps as possible in 2025.

Gorman could have gotten off the schneid on Saturday after starting spring 0-9 with five strikeouts. Instead, he went 0-3 and added two more K's to his ledger.

This is only spring training. We are just now entering March. Brant Brown could have a positive effect on Gorman. Nolan is trying out a new swing this spring. All of these things are true. However, at a certain point, what we see is what may be true.

Nolan Gorman's spring performance shouldn't cause us to give up on him, but it does only add to the worries that were present all last year.

Last year, Nolan Gorman was demoted to Triple-A Memphis after 400 plate appearances to make some adjustments to his game. Prior to his demotion, Gorman was rocking a 37.6% K rate with a .203/.271/.400 slash line, a .197 ISO, and 19 home runs. He was able to drop his strikeout percentage by 12% in Memphis, and he raised his ISO to .284. Let's also remember that he was hitting against lesser competition.

After a week of games, Nolan Gorman has just 12 at-bats. That's a microscopic sample size. Nothing major should be taken from these figures. However, he does have seven strikeouts and just one walk and zero hits in those at-bats. For a player who needed to have a strong spring to catapult himself into an important regular season, this isn't an inspirational start.

I'm not using 12 spring at-bats as my sole point here. We have over 1,100 plate appearances of Nolan Gorman in the majors so far. He's accumulated plate appearances that would be equivalent to two full seasons. So far, we have seen a player with a 104 wRC+ who strikes out 34% of the time and can hit 30 home runs in a season. That's a decent player, but we also must remember that those stats are being helped heavily from a strong 2023 season.

If Nolan Gorman can tap back into what he was doing in 2023, then the organization has a solid second baseman for the future. If he teeters closer to his 2024 output, then the Cardinals may have to make a tough decision on a young player.

If he continues to struggle, designating Nolan Gorman for assignment isn't an option. It does nothing to benefit the player or the team. Starting him at Triple-A Memphis is an option, but he won't be facing the best competition, so any data we get there won't be helpful.

In a transition year, it may be best for Nolan Gorman to get as many reps as possible in the majors. He's blocking only Thomas Saggese at this point, and he's even more of an unknown commodity. Manager Oliver Marmol may as well roll Gorman out most days next year and let him rise to the occasion or fall flat. Either way, the organization and fans will have a better idea of what they have in their young infielder.

Nolan Gorman's ice-cold start to spring training shouldn't make or break anyone's feelings toward him. However, it isn't overly encouraging to see him striking out and missing the same pitches he's been missing throughout his career.