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'Miserable' in Memphis, Slugger Hopes for Another Shot to Lock Down Third for Cards
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- 'Miserable' in Memphis, Slugger Hopes for Another Shot to Lock Down Third for Cards
(Jeff Le-Imagn Images)
With nearly 500 MLB games under his belt and 81 big-league homeruns to his credit at the time he was optioned to Memphis in early June, a stunned Nolan Gorman kept looking at his surroundings and wondering how he ended up backat the Triple-A level of baseball again.
The third base job of the St. Louis Cardinals finally hisafter four years of waiting, Gorman truly thought 2026 would be his year toshine. However, when swing-and-miss woes hit again and Gorman found himselfback in Triple-A, there was no masking of his initial feelings.
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"I was pretty miserable," Gorman said candidly. "I don'tconsider myself a Minor League player whatsoever. I think there is a lot ofgood I can do up here against Major League pitching, and I've shown that attime throughout the seasons I've been up here.
"When I get into the season, I have to lock into myself andnot try to do too much or try and find another answer to some other issue. WhatI had going into this season was going to suit me well over an entire season,but then I lost it and I started searching again."
Gorman, 26, is back to searching for opportunities to showthat he can still contribute with his powerful left-handed swing. He was out ofthe starting lineup again on Tuesday night when the Cardinals were held to justone hit in a 2-0 loss to the Pirates. Gorman hasn't started since lastWednesday's loss to the Giants, a game where he showed off his improved plate disciplineby walking twice. His last homer came on Sept. 6 in Colorado , and he's hopingmore chances will come over the Cardinals' final five games of the season.
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Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol has been noncommittal abouthis team's third baseman for 2027, saying that even though the squad has used Thomas Saggese , Jose Fermin, Blaze Jordan and Gorman there, that the competitionfor the position is "wide open" heading into next year's Spring Training.
Rainiel Rodriguez Named Cardinals' Minor League Player of the Year for 2026
Gorman's fifth MLB season has been another disjointed onewith him playing 82 games with the Cardinals and 46 with the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds.Strikeout woes continued to plague the first-round pick from 2018 – regardless ofwhether he was playing in the big leagues or in Triple-A. He started the seasonby homering in two of his first five games, but a .224 average in April fell to.192 in May. Then, while in the throes of a 1 for 20 stretch that included 11strikeouts, Gorman was demoted to Memphis.
Rather than reporting directly to Memphis, Gorman headed to Atlanta to work on his swing at the Maven Baseball Lab to work with Universityof Virginia head coach Chris Pollard. While there, worked on letting the balltravel deeper and using a swing that would keep his bad in the zone longer.
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"I pretty much got feedback that what I was doing in theoffseason was right, and I needed to get back to that," Gorman said of a swinghe abandoned once he started struggling badly in June while still with theCardinals.
In Memphis, Gorman couldn't shake the feeling that he didn'tbelong in the Minor Leagues and that showed up in his swing-and-miss stats. Hestruck out four times in five at bats in his first Triple-A game on June 23,and he whiffed 21 times in his first 11 games with Memphis. His strikeout ratesoared to 36.3 percent – higher than the 31.8 percent it has been at the big-leaguelevel with the Cardinals.
Gorman credited wife Madison, who he married on Dec. 31,2024, with helping pull him out of some dark places mentally when he was stillstruggling at the Triple-A level.
"My wife was a huge part of just day and night feeding mesupport," Gorman said. "She was probably the biggest contributor to helping me,for sure.
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"I'm not a very emotional guy, and if you asked her, shewould want me be more open about that stuff, but I kept my emotions in prettygood. After the All-Star break, (Madison) came back to ( St. Louis ), and therewere a couple of weeks of coming back to the hotel room and I was absolutely miserable.But you realize that there's nobody coming to save you.
That love and support manifested itself in the form ofGorman's best power surge, which came in early August and ultimately led himback to the big leagues. He homered six times over the first nine games ofAugust, and he was back with the Cardinals by Aug. 25. He homered in his secondgame back on Aug. 26, but his power has been spotty while his opportunitieshave grown sparse. What has improved has been his eye as he's walked six timesin recent weeks.
Gorman thinks his hitting struggles often overshadow whathe brings to the team in terms of his defense at third base. Lighter and moreagile this season, Gorman has committed just four errors in 479 innings at thirdthis season. He lights up when talking about playing third base, and he hopeshe will get more shots to prove that he can help solve the Cardinals' issues atthe position.
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"This whole year I have felt really good over there and mythinking all along was that I'm back in the position that I came up playing, I'mcomfortable there and it gave me the freedom to go out and do what I was capableof doing. I never let (hitting) affect my defense."
Gorman said his confidence is still high – maybe evenirrationally so based off his struggles of the past three seasons – that he canstill be an every-day player in the big leagues.
"I still have that confidence, and I still have theconfidence piece that is needed to be a good player," he said. But – this iswhat has killed me – because I want to continue to get better, I'm constantlylooking for something that will make me better. The offseason work that I did,I had a lot of confidence in that. But when something would go bad, I'd constantlybe looking how to fix it, and I get away from what I know will work. So, I haveto find something and just stick to it."
