The key to the St. Louis Cardinals offense, if not the entire season, is the performance of two talented but enigmatic young hitters.
* Nolan Gorman, who turns 25 years old on May 10. He’s made 1,235 plate appearances in 330 major-league games.
* Jordan Walker, who turns 24 years old on May 22. He’s had 747 plate appearances in 194 big-league games.
Other than Jordan’s impressive improvement defensively in right field, the first month of the season did not go well for either hitter.
Gordon jumped into 2025 with four hits in his first eight at-bats with a home run and doubled, but he went on the IL with a hamstring strain after only two games.
The left-handed slugger with so much power and promise has been trying to establish consistency after returning on April 12. In 13 games since then, Gorman has a .150 average, .250 slugging percentage, and has struck out in 34 percent of his plate appearances.
Walker looked great at the plate in his first seven games of 2025 – .346 average, .913 OPS – but couldn’t sustain the early momentum. Walker goes into Wednesday’s doubleheader at Cincinnati with a .157 average, terrible .406 OPS and a 31 percent strikeout rate over his last 19 games.
The right-handed hitter continues to fail against right-handed pitching, batting .197 with a 31.5 percent strikeout rate against them since the beginning of 2024.
Since the start of last season, Walker has an OPS+ that’s 35 percent below league average offensively.
Gorman’s OPS+ since over that time is 15 percent below league average offensively.
Stat of the day for ya: since the beginning of 2024 when facing major-league pitching, Gorman and Walker (combined) have 101 more strikeouts than hits. The totals are 248 strikeouts and 137 hits.
Good grief.
The Cardinals are all about the “runway” in 2025. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak and manager Oliver Marmol have repeatedly stated the goal of playing Gorman and Walker extensively this season, and staying with them – even if they are in distress and experiencing failure.
Tuesday, on Marmol’s weekly appearance on the “Gashouse Gang” on KMOX, I used a boxing metaphor in asking Marmol a question: will there ever come a time this season, if things get really bad, that you’ll intervene and stop the fight? The manager gave a thoughtful answer. He expressed support but didn’t dismiss the possibility of an intervention. And that could mean a return to the minors.
“If you feel like you’re losing them mentally,” he said. “Jordan Walker right now is fighting. He’s working hard, he’s confident in what he’s been working on, and it’s not coming into play just yet. But the conversations have been super positive. His demeanor and overall approach towards how he does his cage work and everything leading into a game has been very positive.
“When you get to the point where you feel like you’re losing the player mentally – meaning like he’s defeated, and no longer has the answer or is tired of the scrutiny of the big-league level … because that’s what comes with the big leagues. When you are at the big league level, someone is writing about you every night. Someone’s sitting on a radio show, for hours on end, just talking about your failures, right?
“And it just wears on a young player. When you feel like, man, it’s taken its toll, and they’re starting to feel defeated. Then at that point you make sure you don’t lose the player and you put them in an environment where they can go ahead and work on some things at the Triple A level where that scrutiny isn’t nearly as high.”
Marmol specifically mentioned Walker, but my question included Gorman as well. Obviously, Marmol isn’t ready to stop the fight and wants the players to continue working on their hitting approach, which continues to be a work in progress. It’s hard.
“I will say we’re not anything close to that at the moment,” Marmol said in reference to Triple A Memphis being an option. “It’s based on how they’re communicating, feeling or approaching their work on a daily basis.
“But is there a time for that? Yes, there is. There is. And you’re basing it off what you know about the player or the person and their ability to handle failure. You just watch them.”
Fans aren’t patient. Marmol has no choice; patience is a necessity. That’s what the “runway” season is all about. As fans you don’t have to like it, but that’s how it will be, and the runway becomes shorter.
I asked Marmol a couple of other questions that I had on my mind. And by the way, you really should watch his weekly visit to “The Gashouse Gang” on Tuesday at noon St. Louis time. You can watch it live or view the recording of his 35-minute session on the KMOX YouTube channel.
Next Question: I told Marmol that he needs more dudes – better hitters – and wondered what it’s like for him to look at the Cincinnati Reds and see a team that added three good hitters over the offseason: Austin Hays, Gavin Lux, and Jose Trevino. The Cardinals, by contrast, didn’t add an established major-league position player to the roster for 2025.
“I don’t let myself go there because what I think we’re building towards is better than anything that’s going on in our division, and I do believe that,” Marmol said. Is it going to be this year? Probably not. But we are building towards something.
To Marmol, it’s about “understanding some of the things they do that leads into inconsistency … and you start to shorten those periods of time where they’re going through their slumps, and you continue to make progress. You continue to pound that into them, the fundamentals, playing the game the right way.”
This is what you would expect him to say, but Marmol likes his team despite its road futility and a 12-17 start to the season.
The manager praised his players for “taking every damn they give us across the way,” referring to the opponent.
“It’s a compliment to our group that we’ve been in every game. If you look at 2023, there were times we got blown out early and we never fought back. We just weren’t in many games. This group is different in the sense of, they will fight back. And I like their style of play.”
My opinion? After giving this some thought – and I don’t have time for lengthy follow-up questions in a relatively brief interview space – I do believe positive reinforcement is a good thing.
That said, the standards have to be higher than that, because players are supposed to fight back and compete hard. But they also have to play better and do better. Marmol is at a disadvantage given this organization’s complacency, but fans aren’t going to feel sorry for him.
“I will say that when you look across the way and the other team has made a lot more moves, sure, they’ll benefit from that this year,” Marmol said. “We’re going to run our guys out there and continue to develop those players. I really like where our young guys are headed and what they’re going to be capable of doing in the upcoming years - I really do.
“And that goes for not only the players we have with us today, but also the prospects that have been put into place, and some of the arms that are coming through the system and will be here soon.”
Next Question: I asked Marmol about dealing with failure and how he and his coaches can prevent the players from losing confidence and giving into those failures. A losing mentality can be terribly damaging.
“Spot on,” Marmol told me. “That is the job. So last night (after Monday’s loss to the Reds), I had the majority of my staff in my hotel room and we just talked baseball. Just talked about the players. Talked exactly about that – what you just mentioned.
“Hey, during a stretch where things aren’t going well, how do you continue to instill winning habits, even though the end of the game doesn’t go the way we wanted it to?
“And it’s always good in those type of settings, away from the field, for guys to talk about that. Is there frustration? At times, yeah. You’re able to vent and say what you want to say. But then, it’s how do we instill this in Jordan Walker at a time that, man, he is trying to survive.
“And a lot of it is, we have to be consistent in how we show up every day. And the second they see me, or any of my staff members, second-guessing the approach or process that’s in place – that’s when you fail. So we have to be consistent every day, making sure that they know what to expect from us, and that we have a plan for them that day.”
Marmol didn’t have to sell me on the value of his coaches. Because I already believed they’re good – in large part because of a more prominent emphasis on teaching and instructing.
Coaches like Jon Jay, Daniel Descalso, pitching coach Dusty Blake and hitting coach Brant Brown are relentless in their desire to work with players to make them better, and remain encouraged.
“I give them credit for the way they’re collaborating with the players to instill this confidence, even when things don’t go well,” Marmol said. “We’ll see it (better results) over time.”
Marmol used the offense as an example. Through Monday’s 3-1 loss at Cincinnati, the STL offense had stalled repeatedly over the previous 20 games.
Earlier in the interview I asked Marmol about his team’s offensive identity – because I don’t really see one. He disagreed, and cited the improved quality of their at-bats this season.
“I’m confident in the identity of our offense,” Marmol said. “Is it showing up every day the way we want it to? No, it’s not. But you just asked the question that’s the big key to all of this. During this period where we are going through what we are going through, it’s the staff making sure they’re instilling winning habits, and (putting) that culture into it. That is the gig.”
Thanks for reading …
-Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting. You can access all of his columns and videos here on SportsHubSTL, catch him most weekdays on the “Gashouse Gang” or “Redbird Rush Hour” on KMOX (1120-AM, 104.1-FM), and he’s a regular guest on the “Cardinal Territory” video show hosted by the great Katie Woo of The Athletic.