Nolan Gorman St. Louis Cardinals 2026 strikeout struggles, Digi Mart USA News (St. Louis): Growth, as Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol pointed out repeatedly over the final month of the 2026 season, can be measured in a variety of ways. One way is the standings, where the Cardinals fell back a win from 2025 (78-84) to 2026 (77-85), a drop that was somewhat expected given the youth on the roster and the club’s sale of veteran pitchers JoJo Romero and Dustin May for prospects at the MLB Trade Deadline.
Instead, the Cardinals tried to evaluate growth in non-traditional ways. Growth was having a core group of players, including Alec Burleson, Jordan Walker, JJ Wetherholt, Ivan Herrera, Masyn Winn, Michael McGreevy, Kyle Leahy and Riley O’Brien, take major steps and evolve into building blocks.
Growth was also seeing Leo Bernal, Joshua Baez, Quinn Mathews, Cooper Hjerpe and Nathan Church live up to the hype from the Minor Leagues.
Nolan Gorman had hits in his first four games and in five of the first six, but then the swing and miss started to pile up again, resulting in a demotion to Triple-A Memphis for 2 1/2 months. Marmol said of the young group: “This is a really young group, but there’s been a lot of progress with so many of these guys.”
However, president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom noted that the Cardinals still have major gaps between them and MLB’s top teams. The National League champion Brewers finished 26 games ahead of St.
Louis and beat the Cardinals in 11 of 13 head-to-head meetings, so much more growth is needed.
Gorman, 26, was selected by the Cardinals in the first round (No. 19 overall) of the 2018 MLB Draft. In 2026 he played 85 games, batting .184/.272/.308 with nine home runs, 33 RBI and 98 strikeouts.
His strikeout rates since his MLB debut were 32.9 percent (2022), 31.9 percent (2023), 37.6 percent (2024), 33.8 percent (2025) and 32.5 percent (2026).
Gorman went into 2026 with the starting third base job for the first time but could not hold it. He hit .224 with 28 strikeouts in April, .192 with 30 strikeouts in May, and 1 for 20 with 11 strikeouts in seven June games before being sent to Triple-A Memphis.
He found his power stroke after the All-Star break and returned to the big leagues in late August.
His biggest issue was off-speed pitching: he hit just .080 with 31 strikeouts against off-speed pitches, primarily changeups that fade away from his left-handed swing. Gorman is in danger of being non-tendered for 2027, which would make him a free agent.
Gorman’s home run totals fell from 27 in 2023 to 19 in 2024, 14 in 2025 and nine in 2026. Denton’s analysis suggests the rebuilding Cardinals are unlikely to spend heavily on free agents such as Alec Bohm or Japanese slugger Teruaki Sato, and may try a combination of Blaze Jordan, Thomas Saggese and Gorman at third base again.
Still, Gorman appears to be a strong candidate for a fresh start elsewhere, which may be best for his happiness and offensive approach.
