I have a question that I don\u2019t have an answer to, but it might be the key between the St. Louis Cardinals well-publicized rebuild lasting half a decade or a year or two. Is it possible that the newly-deployed player development tools that the St. Louis Cardinals have put into place can fix Nolan Gorman and\/or Jordan Walker or are they too far gone?<\/p>\n
If you haven\u2019t already checked out the excellent \u201cThe St. Louis Cardinals: Baseball meets Technology\u201d article<\/a>, I highly recommend it. It\u2019s a deep dive into the many new tools and technologies the Cardinals have now deployed that will help optimize player development. That includes Force plates<\/a>, ArmCare Strength and Range of Motion Sensor<\/a>, Trajekt<\/a>, Trackman<\/a>, Rapsodo 2.0<\/a>, Kinatrax<\/a>, Edgertronics<\/a>, Hawkeye<\/a>, NordBord<\/a>, Groinbar<\/a> and I could go on and on and on. The St. Louis Cardinals have also hired a myriad of personnel<\/a> to help players maximize all of these tools. We unfortunately can\u2019t turn back time to when Nolan Gorman was drafted by the Cardinals in 2018 and put all of these great tools and people in his path, but could they somehow turn around him and Jordan Walker now? The answer is likely different for both players.<\/p>\n Nolan Gorman is currently 25 years old and has no minor league options left. He\u2019ll turn 26 in May. He\u2019s about to begin his 5th major league baseball season. If you look at Nolan\u2019s major league stats, they\u2019ve all but flatlined. He did reduce his strikeout percentage by an eyelash last season compared to 2024, but it\u2019s still a completely unacceptable 33.8%. Even if you just look at his numbers versus the fastball<\/a>, his average is barely above the Mendoza line. His performance versus breaking pitches<\/a> declined last year compared to the year prior. Gorman\u2019s hard-hit rate did improve slightly in 2025, but his barreling percentage practically fell through the floor falling from 16.7% in 2024 to a paltry 9.1% last season. It would seem that the major league arms he\u2019s facing have found the holes in his swing and he has been unsuccessful in adapting and that\u2019s probably the biggest understatement in Viva El Birdos history. If you\u2019re asking me, I\u2019m afraid no technology will be able to turn Gorman around at this point in his career, but I\u2019d love to be wrong about that.<\/p>\n Jordan Walker is 23 years old and will turn 24 slightly less than 2 weeks after Gorman\u2019s birthday in May. He still has one lone minor league option left and I\u2019d love to see him take it by starting the 2026 season in Memphis. While Jordan\u2019s major league numbers are poor, there is a glimmer of hope in his batting metrics<\/a> if you look hard enough. His exit velocity and barrel rate<\/a> has slowly (another big understatement) climbed from the 2023 season through 2025. Barrel rate progress of 7.5 in 2023 to 9.5 in 2024 to 10.9 in 2025 is at least heading the right direction. Jordan\u2019s batting average versus fastballs and breaking balls has improved also, but average versus off-speed pitches overall declined last season. Call it wishful thinking, but I\u2019m not convinced that Jordan wouldn\u2019t benefit from another significant deployment in the minors to see if he can turn a promising career around from a dumpster fire to at least part of what many of us hoped it would be.<\/p>\n My fear is that we\u2019ll see Jordan Walker as the starting right fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals as the outfield outlook right now is poor<\/a>. I think he stands the best chance at still becoming a significant offensive threat if only someone can convince him to completely rethink his approach at the plate and the hard work behind the scenes. Would it be too much to ask to have Albert Pujols join the organization and help Jordan understand the extremely disciplined process<\/a> he took for every single at-bat.<\/p>\n I am of the belief that holding on to Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker this off-season was the right move as the Cardinals would have been selling extremely low on both players. I was one of the naive people that thought there was a chance we\u2019d see Gorman or Walker break out and show the growth they needed during the infamous \u201crunway season\u201d last year. That obviously didn\u2019t come close to happening. I fear that Nolan Gorman has developed too many bad habits and has passed the point of no return, but I\u2019d love to be proven wrong about that. I\u2019m still bullish on Jordan Walker at least having an opportunity to scratch the surface of his potential, but the end of his development time is fast approaching.<\/p>\n