Exit Interview 2020: John Nogowski

After every season (dating back to 2012), we’ve spent time looking at every player that got into a game for the St. Louis Cardinals that season.  They might have gotten a couple of innings, they might have played every day, but if they played, they get a post.  Usually, I like to term this like the players are packing up their locker and then seeing Mike Shildt before they head off for the winter.  This year, of course, was anything but typical.  So we’ll look at every player, we’ll take in some of their stats, but we won’t be giving out grades this season or delving too much into the positive/negative.  There are just too many variables in the Year of COVID for that to be reasonable.  As he has for the past few years, cardinalsgifs has lent his enormous talents to our header image and we thank him for it!

Player: John Nogowski

Season stats: 1 games, 4 PA, 1 H, 1 K, .250/.250/.250, 38 OPS+, -0.1 bWAR

Postseason stats: DNP

Statcast: .156 xwOBA, 0.0% barrel %, 95.9 exit velocity, 33.3% hard hit %

Best Statcast category: Did not qualify

Worst Statcast category: Did not qualify

Hero/Goat: None

On COVID IL: No

Overview: John Nogowski was designed for a season like this and, honestly, it’s a little surprising he didn’t wind up getting a little more playing time.  He’s one of those organizational guys that’s good enough in the minors that he probably won’t hurt you if you have to use him to patch a temporary hole at the big league level.  The problem for Nogowski was that COVID didn’t hit the offense terribly hard.  Paul Goldschmidt, who plays the position you’d usually see Nogowski at, played every game.  He did DH a time or two, though, which is why Nogowski has a line up top.  You have to be happy to see that he got his first major league hit and he’ll always be on the list of major league baseball players now.  He wasn’t up with the big leagues very much–as I said, there was less need for hitting depth than there was pitching–but he served his purpose.

Outlook: Nogowski is still in the organization and will probably get a regular slot at Memphis assuming a regular season in 2021.  Whether or not he’ll got another shot at the big leagues is a little more iffy, but likely he won’t really embarrass himself if he’s required to fill in.

Series Navigation<< Exit Interview 2020: Yadier MolinaExit Interview 2020: Tyler O’Neill >>

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