Every year, or at least every year since 2012, we’ve taken some time after the season was over to look at the past 162 games through the lens of the players that played them (and the management that was in charge of them). Last year, the Exit Interview series spent less time digging into splits and finding numerical oddities and more time reflecting on the player and their season. It was a style that seemed to work so we’re going to bring it back again this year. The legendary cardinalsgifs is back to bring us excellent series art, so it’s all downhill after you see that!
Player: Nolan Gorman
Stats: 107 G, 402 PA, 42 R, 15 2B, 19 HR, 50 RBI, 6 SB, 1 CS, .203/.271/.400, 0.3 bWAR
Statcast: 16.7% barrel, 40.3% sweet spot, 111.0 max exit velocity, .290 wOBA, .312 xwOBA, 37.6 K%, 8.5 BB%
Grade: C
At the 2023 trade deadline, Dayn Perry wrote a passionate defense of Gorman (subscription required), imploring the organization not to trade the young slugger. Dayn sorted through the numbers, showed where Gorman ranked with some illustrious company, and pointed out that it was really just a terrible June that was weighing down his overall numbers. Since August 1 of that year, Gorman has exactly 500 plate appearances in the major leagues. His wRC+ is 91, his average is .205, and his K% is 37.4. It’s not all terrible–Gorman does have 24 homers through that span–but the promise that we’ve seen from him is getting more and more obscured, mainly by his bat flailing through the strike zone yet again. There was a hope that he’d come through strong this year and, indeed, he had some stretches–he hit .344/.407/.781 from May 9 to June 4–but he couldn’t maintain it. He swung at 30% of pitches out of the zone, showing he still has a way to go for plate discipline.
All of this finally came to a head in late August. He hit his last major league home run July 22 and after that he went .182/.217/.227 until the club finally demoted him to Memphis on August 21. After returning to Beale Street for the first time in a long while, he did hit seven home runs in 88 at bats. However, he also struck out 23 times (which, granted, is a better rate than his major league stats) and hit .205. Unfortunately, the solution wasn’t as easy as relieving the pressure and letting him see less-qualified pitchers for a change.
What’s in store for 2025: Getting Gorman right would be a huge boon for this offense, as someone with his power being able to use it consistently would lengthen any lineup. There’s still a ton of red on his Baseball Savant page and he’s still only had three years in the big leagues. That said, arbitration is looming after next season and it would be really good for him to figure out what he’s going to be before then. It will be interesting to see if the new development team have some ideas to unlock some consistent contact for Gorman. If so, he could be Comeback Player of the Year next season.
