Pair Of Cardinals Have Shown Promising Notes During Spring Training

With less than a week until Opening Day, there are some promising notes for the St. Louis Cardinals in some underlying stats that have led to struggles in the past for two Cardinals players.

The Cardinals' roster is nearly finalized, with the active roster standing at 35 players; just nine more have to be trimmed before the Opening Day roster is set. The most recent roster decision all but confirms the Cardinals' rotation come March 26. Richard Fitts was sent to Triple-A Memphis giving way for Andre Pallante and Kyle Leahy to file into the rotation at the start of the year.

After a year, he likely wants to forget Pallante came out with a mission this spring, adding a new changeup to his repertoire, and focused on earning his spot in the show once more. This spring, the Cardinals right-hander saw a dip in his groundball percentage but lowered his line drive percentage from 19.2% last season to 16.7%.

Pallante fell victim to the long ball last season, and while his fly ball rate is up in the spring, he has limited barrels. His barrel rate in 2024 was 3.3% last season; he nearly doubled that, and 6.5% of batted balls were barrelled against him. In the spring, he has the barrel rate back down to 2.7%. If he can continue this success into the season, Pallante could drop that ERA lower than where it was in 2024.

Another Cardinal finding himself in a put-up-or-shut-up situation is Nolan Gorman, after a breakout campaign in 2023, where he hit 27 home runs, he has struggled at the plate to produce at a consistent rate. Much of that can be attributed to his near league-worst strikeout percentage over the last two seasons. The promising note from Gorman is that in his 40 Grapefruit League plate appearances, he has struck out just seven times and walked in six. The lefty has also had five extra base hits this spring, including three leaving the yard.

While neither of these stats guarantees a rebound season, they are promising nonetheless, and if the pair can keep up the progress during the regular season, they will improve their chances of finding their way at the major league level.