There is a lot to like about the 2026 season so far for the St. Louis Cardinals. Through the first 18 games, the team has a winning record and several players are off to a great start. One of the exceptions is Nolan Gorman and the early numbers reveal there is real reason for concern as 2026 is starting to look a lot like 2025.
Full disclosure: I am not a numbers expert like some of my colleagues here. I’m interested in the metrics, but don’t pretend that I can interpret them like the many in our community that also probably did a lot better in algebra than I did in school, too. However, I decided to dig in to see exactly how much progress (or not) that Nolan Gorman has made with his new approach. I did not like what I learned.
I decided to compare how Nolan started the 2025 season compared to what he’s done in 2026 through the same amount of games. So far during the 2026 season, Nolan Gorman has 11 hits in 53 at-bats with 2 home runs and 9 RBI’s and a .208 average and .611 OPS. Through the first 18 games of 2025, he had an almost exact same stat line. Gorman had 10 hits in 53 at-bats with 2 home runs and a .189 average. Nolan’s walk rate and walk-to-strikeout rate was also slightly better at the start of the 2025 season compared to what we’ve seen in 2026. His hard hit rate and barrel percentage are also slightly down from 2025.
Nolan’s power numbers and hard hit rate being down is not really a surprise based on what manager Oli Marmol told us during out interview with him just prior to the season.
“When you talk about what we’re doing with him and what he’s doing in order to prevent that from changing…more contact, not doing that at the expense of bat speed. You have to start somewhere and that’s why I wanted to lay that out last year….the bat speed is going to drop a little bit while we try to figure out how to get him through the zone and impacting the baseball at a higher rate.”
Nolan Gorman showed signs of improvement during Spring Training, but the first 18 games of the season have not seen that trend continue. If anything, he’s regressed somewhat although 18 games is a very small sample size. I suppose I would be delusional to hope that we’d see the Nolan Gorman that we saw at the start of the 2023 season when he began on a tear. Through the first 18 games of 2023, Nolan had a .319 batting average, already had 6 home runs and 18 RBI’s with an OPS north of 1.000. The 2023 version of Nolan Gorman was a confident one while the 2026 Nolan we’ve seen so far looks…well, “uncomfortable” would be the word that comes to mind.
I have to wonder if the key to Nolan Gorman rediscovering himself might be what’s happened with Jordan Walker. When asked about how he’s been able to turnaround his approach and results, Jordan has said that he doesn’t want to think about it too much. On one of the pregame broadcasts earlier this week, I recall Jim Hayes talking to hitting coach Brant Brown. When asked about Jordan Walker, Brant said that he’s not discussing too much about mechanics unless he sees a red flag. The only change he says he’s made is talking to Walker about how he will now be pitched with the opposition knowing he’s a threat. Other than that, he doesn’t want Walker to overthink his new success. The at-bats I’ve seen Nolan Gorman take this season, he looks like a player that’s trying to apply someone else’s approach.
I think that Nolan Gorman is a player that really needs to have some success and he needs to have it soon. Jordan Walker now has his confidence back and he goes to the plate expecting to do damage. We know that Nolan Gorman is capable of being that type of impact player, too. I daydream about a St. Louis Cardinals lineup where both Gorman and Walker are offensive threats. Walker is on his way to living up to his massive potential. Will Gorman be able to jumpstart his flatline start to 2026? We can only hope.
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