Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - RESURGENCE: St. Louis Cardinals’ Nolan Gorman Brings FIREPOWER After Makeover—Will He DELIVER?

Episode Date: March 15, 2026

Nolan Gorman finds his power surge right when the St. Louis Cardinals need it most—can this hitting transformation spark a new era at Busch Stadium? JD Hafron breaks down Gorman's recent hot streak,... the changes behind his improved spring performance, and manager Oli Marmol’s candid reaction to the young infielder’s offseason adjustments. The episode also spotlights Jordan Walker’s ongoing struggles and how the Cardinals’ staff is all in on unlocking his potential, plus the latest on Hunter Dobbins’ injury status and its impact on St. Louis’ pitching depth. 00:00 — Nolan Gorman’s Offseason Improvements 10:50 — Spring Training Highlights & Standouts 22:54 — Hunter Dobbins Update & Oli Marmol Q&A Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-st-louis-cardinals/ Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/ Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonstlcardinals.supercast.com/ Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! PlayStation This episode of is brought to you by MLB The Show 26. Visit https://mlbthe.show/lockedon and use code “LOCKEDON” to unlock a pack for use in Diamond Dynasty. Pre-Order now, Available March 17th on PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. RATED E FOR EVERYONE. Turbo Tax For a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a College Basketball Parlay Profit Boost. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) #ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals #stlouiscardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Nolan Gorman is on a bit of a heater. And apparently there's a story behind that and how we got to this point, how Gorman got his groove back on today's episode of Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, there, Cardinals fans of J.D. Haver, a former National Radio Sports anchor, born and raised in St. Louis and a lifetime Cardinals fan. And welcome to another episode of Locktown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast.
Starting point is 00:00:34 network now the number one sports podcast network. Thank you to our everydayers for being a part of the action for the last few years. For those of you who are new, welcome aboard. Welcome in, gather around, get comfortable. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving you all the information about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by MLB the show 26. Visit MLB the dot show slash locked on use code locked on to unlock a pack for use in Diamond Dynasty. pre-order now available March 17th on PlayStation 5 Xbox and Nintendo Switch rated E for everyone. Not going to lie, I pre-ordered and already put my code in and got my card. So having a blast on it will be the show.
Starting point is 00:01:17 Having a blast watching the Cardinals so far this spring because I'm excited about a lot of this young talent that we've got. On today's show, I want to talk a little bit about this special Q&A with manager Ali Marmal that I got to be a part of on Friday. I'll give you some of the highlights of that discussion, what the plan for Hunter Dobbins is. Plus, we've got two games to talk about from Friday and Saturday. But let's focus on one guy in particular, and that's starting third basement, Nolan Gorman. That's right, starting third basement, Nolan Gorman. He's finally there, got his position, doesn't have to worry about anybody else, none of the outside noise, doesn't have to move over to second base, finally,
Starting point is 00:01:57 where he belongs at third base, the much criticized power hitting in, If you remember, burst onto the scene back in 2022 at 14 home runs in 89 games. Follow that up with 27 dingers and 119 games in 2023. Former first round pick appeared to be coming one of the young power hitting sluggers in the game. And all of Cardinal Nation was very much excited about this. But with that power, came a lot of swing and miss, not responsibility, but a lot of swing and miss. at a strikeout percentage of 32.9 and 31.9 in those first two years. Then in 2024, it jumped, climbed up 37.6, not where you want to be. The hard hit rate fell from 48.6 to
Starting point is 00:02:43 38.6 OPS plus drops from 116 to 87. The home runs go down from 27 to 19. Uh-oh. Oh, uh-oh. trajectory going in the wrong way. Everything went the wrong way, really. And then last year, He did improve in some areas last year. I'll give him credit there, but he still finished the year with numbers that you didn't want. 14 home runs, not enough. OPS plus and 88, not good enough. Strikeout percentage 33.8. Still not good enough.
Starting point is 00:03:13 The power exists. We know that. There's no argument about that from anybody. Everybody knows it. Everybody can see it? But can he hit the ball enough to make that power into a weapon? Less strikeouts, more contact. A lot of people remain skeptical and we'll point out that it is just spring training.
Starting point is 00:03:32 And it is. That's totally fine. I got no problems with you saying that. But the results are a good sign. For sure. It's a good sign to see what Nolan Gorman has been doing. After the triple and the double on Thursday, Gorman was back at it on Saturday with a single and a home run is third of the spring. Finish the day two for three. Bill Ladson at MLB.com did a story on what this offseason look like for Nolan Gorman and how he went to go see a hitting guru that was recommended by former teammate Nolan Aronauta who had his struggles in the WBC and over the last couple of years when he was in a Cardinals uniform has now moved on to Arizona. But Gorman declined to name the expert, didn't say the name, but spent two weeks with this
Starting point is 00:04:19 hitting coach from November 3rd through the 15th trying to figure out how to land his front foot in a better position before swinging. And so far, it's working. It's working. You're seeing results in the spring. Gorman was quoted in the article saying it's hard to get those reps in the off season when it comes to getting at bats. I've been able to come to spring training and feel it out.
Starting point is 00:04:41 It feels good. I think a lot of work I did in the off season is coming through. Latson also quoted Ali Marmal talking about Gorman saying what he is doing is he's doing a nice job. his approach is there, his swing is there, the adjustments are coming into play. That's what you like to see. And he said that we talk about someone going into the off season, knowing what they have to do, coming back and actually putting it into action.
Starting point is 00:05:07 He has done that. I'm glad we actually have a little more time in Florida to allow him to get in that groove and feel really good about it. And another strong day at the plate has Gorman looking and feeling confident with less than two weeks before opening day at Bush Stadium against Tampa Bay. And I've always said something about Nolan Gorman that I've always brought up every day or as you can back me on this the last couple of years was that body language was something that seemed very key to how Gorman was doing. Because as much as the physical side of baseball is important, we all know that the mental side is just as important. And watching his body language and knowing what that might say about how Gorman was doing mentally when he struggled was something I always.
Starting point is 00:05:53 kept an eye on. Like some guys, usually veterans can hide the frustration. They work through it while the younger guys have a tougher time with it. And I feel like the two guys that had the most pressure on them were Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker. They were expected to be studs when they came up. They both had early success. And then things have gone south for both of them. So Jordan's another example of this, where the body language just says it all to me. And you can't tell me that watching Nolan Gorman the last couple years, other than little blips here and there, that he ever looked really all that comfortable or looked like he was having much fun playing the game of baseball. Like, you just can't talk me into that and to believe that.
Starting point is 00:06:35 Obviously, getting results. Like, you have fun playing a game, no matter what it is, when things are going well for you. Like, when I'm playing MLB the show, like, I'm ready to throw my controller sometimes, and I get upset and it's frustrating and things that happen, just like it is for these guys in real life, you know, and when things start to go well, obviously your body language is going to be better. You get those results on the field when, especially knowing that you've worked really hard this off season, which clearly Nolan Gorman has. We all know that we've heard the stories Jordan Walker has as well. It's paying off so far for Gorman. So you're seeing him a little more
Starting point is 00:07:13 loose up there. He looks a little bit more confident. Hopefully eventually we'll get the same things unlocked for Jordan Walker and his massive upside as well. But coming off Friday and Saturdays games, I know Gorman's in the lineup here on Sunday as they're getting underway against Washington, but back-to-back really good games and things are going in the right direction for Nolan Gorman. We hope that he can continue that going into the regular season. Got some observations from Friday and Saturday's games plus what Ali told us about Jordan Walker's struggles. Plus we got some news on Hunter Dobbins on Sunday as well. All of this coming up for on Locked on Cardinals.
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Starting point is 00:11:16 The rest of us can just wallow in the members' only chats. As our brackets blow up, I am notoriously terrible. at bracket. So you should have no trouble beating me. And as a member of the club, though, you'll get the ad-free version of this show. Again, it's all free for a month with code March at locked on shton shtalcarnels. supercast.com or tap the link in the show notes. Cardinals went on Friday night in walk-off fashion, which is always fun. And then we get the the spring training tie that we got on Saturday. So instead of three stars, which I normally deal, let's talk about just some of the highlights and low lights from both games. We'll start
Starting point is 00:11:51 with the good stuff from Friday. I finally got to see that much talked about. Blaze Jordan Power. Ooh! My guy unleashed the fury from what's been a really tough camp. Did that at the plate on Friday night. He launched one 422 into the night for his first home run of the spring. Look like it went 622.
Starting point is 00:12:12 That was an absolute nuke. Jordan was acquired in that Stephen Matt's trade with Boston. And coming into Thursday's game, he was hitting just 37. like it had been a really rough spring for him. But now he's got a hit in three straight games, a couple of RBIs, so good to see him turning things around. It should be the starting first baseman at AAA Memphis this year, still just 23 years old.
Starting point is 00:12:32 Ramon Mendoza followed up Jordan's bomb with a dinger of his own. Also his first of the spring, which cut the lead to four to three. And then our boy Colton Ledbetter, who I continue to praise, got the walkoff hit in the ninth inning. His second walkoff this spring, finished two for three in the game. He's hitting 556. Is that good? Last time I checked, that's pretty good for a baseball hitter.
Starting point is 00:12:54 556 this spring. You've heard me talk about his swing. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. Spent all season last year with the raised AA affiliate swing. He's got speed. He's an athlete. He's certainly somebody to keep an eye on.
Starting point is 00:13:09 I don't know what his maximum future will be at some point, but I thoroughly enjoyed the little glimpses of Colton Ledbetter that we've gotten this spring. Ballpin also excellent again on Friday, five scoreless innings. Penn regulars were in there. Ryan Stannick struck out the side throwing smoke. Jojo Romero, Riley O'Brien, who was in there. Another shutout inning, which was good to see after I had that rough outing back from the, the calf injury second, I think it was a second appearance back and just couldn't find the strike zone whatsoever. So good to see him bounce back. Justin Brule fighting for one of those left-handed spots alongside with Joe Joe in the bullpen, had a good inning.
Starting point is 00:13:53 Low light of the game, we'll say Kyle Leahy, another unbalanced outing from Kyle. So good his last time out, remember this one, he goes four innings, but four run, six hits, including a home run, but he also struck out five. So as I've said before, after his last outing again, which was a good one, I expect a lot of this, a lot of ups and downs with him specifically early on until he gets comfortable as a starter again, similar to what we saw from Libby last year. You know, Libby went from bullpen, used to be a starter, went to bullpen, back to starter. And for a little bit there, it was, you know, him getting comfortable with it all once again. So some days, I think you're going to
Starting point is 00:14:33 get the same from Leahy where there's going to be days he looks amazing and incredibly like, yeah. And then he's going to have a not so good day. And it's just going to be an up and down type of thing. But they definitely want him to be a starter. So it's something there, they're just going to work through. Let's hop over to Saturday's game, which ended in that 7 to 7 tie after eight innings because Mother Nature dropped some rain on them. Highlights, we talked about Nolan Gorman earlier, single home run in his first two at bats, now hitting 267 with three home runs, tying him with Joshua Baez and Nelson Velasquez for tops on the team. Six RBIs is tied with the team lead as well with Chase Davis, who had that Monster 2 home run game, Joel Pozo
Starting point is 00:15:14 and J.J. Weatherhall. But again, the numbers that I really want you to pay, attention to when it comes to Gorman. I mean, home runs RBIs. I get that. But slugging, now up to 667 OPS jumped at 1.020. That's what you want from Nolan Gorman. So good to see him seeing and hitting the ball quite well. Nathan Church, a couple more hits. One was a bun single, knocked in a run. The dude, he's got a lot to offer. Is he a superstar talent? No, but he's got a lot of stuff in different ways. He's got the wheels, which, you know, We're always going to be a proponent of speed here at Lockhartton Cardinals. More speed the more the merrier.
Starting point is 00:15:51 The defense, excellent. I know Cardinals fans, obviously, we really focus on defense and how we need that to be top-notch all the time. Nathan Church gives you that. And now you're seeing him do kind of what he did last year with Memphis. You didn't see it so much at the pros when he got called up. But last year of Memphis, he had a tremendous season. Hitting 320 on the spring now tied for second on the club with eight hits. He's got an OBP of 452.
Starting point is 00:16:16 Thank you. OPS 932. I continue to believe he makes the most sense to be the guy getting most of the time in left field with Lars Newpar out. I just love the all-around game that he brings. And, you know, when you're facing a right-handed starter, which you're going to see more times than not, you're going to have Church, Victor, Gorman, JJ, and Burley as left-handed bats in the lineup. And that's a nice group of Southpaws who can give you a little bit of everything. You've got some pop. You've got some speed. You got line drive capabilities. You got guys with good eyes. So it's a good group to have.
Starting point is 00:16:52 Andre Palante got the start on Saturday. It was one of those days where the command wasn't perfect, but he was able to wiggle out of some situations. He walked three, but he only gave up one run on three hits over five days. He strikes out four more, lots of ground balls on Saturday, which you know, when Andre Palante is on, you see a lot of ground balls. So the ball was darting all over the place out of his hand yesterday. Four starts this spring. 2.57 ERA, 0.93 whip. That's huge. Opponents hitting just 167 against him. Love him or hate him. Andre Palante continues to look solid this spring. And if he's your fifth or your sixth starter,
Starting point is 00:17:29 you're probably not going to complain too much. Like, you're not relying on him to be one of your top three guys by any means. But he's looked good so far this spring. If he continues that, he's another guy that, you know, you look at body language. It was such a tough year for him last year. So if he can just put. all of that in the rear view mirror and do what you're seeing him do this spring, then that's great,
Starting point is 00:17:51 perfect. Low lights in the game really comes out of the bullpen for this one, which has been so good, but you had another rough outing from Ryan Fernandez, who had pitched so well since that first appearance that didn't go well. Lead off walk, big no-no, obviously. Single on a hanging slider right over the heart of the plate, strikeout, double on another slider that caught too much of the plate, and then a double on a fastball. Ian Bedell had to come in.
Starting point is 00:18:14 Wasn't really able to help him out there. Didn't get out of it on skates. So Fernandez's line on Saturday, not so pretty. One third of an inning, four runs, three hits, a walk, okay? Location was the issue on Saturday. I still think Ryan Fernandez offers you some decent stuff from the ballpen. Just wasn't his day on Saturday. Just wasn't able to locate the way you would like to see him do it,
Starting point is 00:18:37 which is what he was doing in his previous appearances where, like nobody was hitting him at all. Our guy, Packing Aughton gave up his first run of the spring. It was a solo home run. Meatball right over the heart of the plate that tied the game at seven. But he looked good right after that. Two Ks after that. He's had a fantastic spring so far. I'm really rooting for him to be in the mix.
Starting point is 00:19:00 I don't know if he'll make the opening day roster. I'm not going to go out and say that just because he's still coming back from all of the injuries and whatnot. But certainly a guy that I think is going to be in that rotation of the Memphis shuttle, as we call it that will be going back and forth with the Memphis Redbirds. As long as he still has options and stuff, I really haven't looked that up. I don't know what it's like with him on that side of things yet. But he's going to be in the mix either way, all right? And I even asked Ali about him in our Q&A, which I'm going to get to here in just a little bit.
Starting point is 00:19:33 But I asked him specifically about Nodin because I didn't think a lot of people have been talking about him. And he agreed with me. He goes, I agree with you. I don't think enough people are talking. about packing not neither but obviously they're monitoring things after you know so many injuries that he's gone through but he's certainly been impressed and uh you know thinks that he can be a definite weapon for them coming out of the bullpen all right up next we got news on hunter daubbins on sunday morning and some notes from the q and a like i said that i was with uh with
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Starting point is 00:22:37 Your first listen of the day. Thank you for making Lockdown on the number one sports podcast and network. A reminder, if you want to join that every day or club, use the code March before they tip off on Thursday and get a month for free. So not so surprising news. Unfortunate news, but not so surprising. Hunter Dobbins, who was acquired in the Wilson Contreras deal with Boston this offseason, will be starting the season on the injured list. According to our guy Daniel Guerrero at SCL Today.com, he spoke with manager Ali Marmal and Dobbins will open up the season on the IEL as he continues to recover from the ACL
Starting point is 00:23:11 that he suffered last July with the Red Sox. Dobbins has been able to build his arm up the spring, but has been limited in fielding his position. He threw in a minor league game on Saturday. Reports are that it went well, so there's nothing to report as far as issues with his arm or his back or anything else. Like, they are really just making sure he's 100%.
Starting point is 00:23:34 And they're just going to ease him back. No need to push it because you have pitching depth here in 2026. You know, my belief is that Libby, May, McGreevy, Leahy, Fitz, and Palante are going to be your starting six on opening day. And I say starting six because that's a possibility that they could implement something like that. In what order they will come? I don't know, except that I fully believe that Libby is in line to go on opening day. At first, he was going to throw on Sunday against Mike List. Instead, they got him on the backfields.
Starting point is 00:24:07 Richard Fitz getting the start on Sunday. and it just everything is pointing that Matthew Libertoy is going to be your starter. And to wrap things up here on Lockdown Cardinals, I was invited to a private Q&A session on Friday with manager Ali Marmal and some of our other fine podcasters and bloggers who helped cover the team. Some of them I call friends. There was a big group of us in there, and it was just kind of cool. Like people you've seen on Locked on Cardinals and you've seen me on their shows as well.
Starting point is 00:24:33 One big community, which was a lot of fun. And it was great. You know, Ali was very candid and open. about anything that he was asked. He didn't hide behind anything. We touched on a lot of things that he likes at camp, including six-man rotation talk. But we also obviously wanted to know,
Starting point is 00:24:50 like the big elephant in the room is Jordan Walker, right? That's the one thing that is standing out at camp that everybody has questions about. And Ollie was very honest when it came to what they're doing with Jordan Walker and what they need to get out of him. And they are doing everything that they can possibly do to get him going in the right direction. He hasn't been in game action the last few days. He brought that up, said that they were going to pull him from game action for a couple of days
Starting point is 00:25:22 just so he can get more time in the hitting lab and get more work there. The numbers this spring are not good. Again, credit to Bernie Miklis, who tweeted these out, 34.4% strikeout rate, swinging at pitches out of the strike zone at a rate of 40%. 68.4% ground ball rate, 93% of his batted balls in play have either been a ground ball or a pop up to the infield. Like, that's disastrous numbers for what you want Jordan Walker to be. We're not talking about a guy that, you know, you want him batting ninth. Like no disrespect to Victor Scott, but ground ball rates and stuff.
Starting point is 00:26:02 That's a Victor Scott thing with his speed and stuff. that's what you're looking for from him, not from your massive right fielder that you thought was going to be a middle of the order masher for the next five to 10 years. It's just not happening. But they are in no way, shape, or form ready to give up on Jordan Walker. I know people are like, he's a boss, just move on. It's not going to happen. They're not going to move on from him.
Starting point is 00:26:28 It is their mission right now in life to get this kid right because of the talent that he possesses. And at the time and the effort that's gone into figuring this whole thing out, like they're not ready to quit on this. They're not just going to roll over and say, ah, well, we did our best. We're done. They're not. They're going to continue to put them out there. And they just, they want to fix them as much as anybody else.
Starting point is 00:26:51 Jordan wants to get fixed. He's doing everything. They're putting in the hours. It's not like this is a group of instructors or that Jordan Walker is not putting in the work. It's just not clicking yet. And they're hoping that it will. They're hoping that it will. But it's not a lack of effort that is the problem here.
Starting point is 00:27:09 He also spoke highly on what we've seen from Gorman. Nelson Belasquez mentioned what he's like from him so far, Paki Norton, which I brought up. And he even showed some love to my guy Luis Gastilum, who, you know, he gave him some process. Like, bro, that change up is real, dude. So excited about his future as well. So that's the one thing I can take away from the Q&A,
Starting point is 00:27:33 we got to do was that not quitting on Jordan Walker and they are very much excited about the future of this team and the talent that they've got coming up talent that they've got there. They know that this year is not going to be easy. They are not trying to blow sunshine up anyone's butt and pretend that it won't be. But they are legitimately pumped about the direction they're going in. They're excited about this group of players, how they're going to get to grow together. and help get this organization back to where it wants to be and where we as fans want them to be.
Starting point is 00:28:10 And that's a consistent winning ball club that fans have come to expect. And this year is going to be difficult. We know this. And everybody is admitting that. But there's still some fun to be had. And I think you've seen Clemson of that this spring, where you've seen the talent.
Starting point is 00:28:28 And despite it being young, and maybe you haven't seen a lot of it, and despite not having the huge names anymore on the club, you can see that there's some talent here. And hopefully they are better than what most people expect this year. So, but that's kind of what I took away from it. And, you know, it was cool, getting some time with Ollie. So big thank you to you guys for making Locked on Cardinals,
Starting point is 00:28:54 your first listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L.O. underscore Cardinals at a JD Sports Radio. You can also find us on TikTok and Instagram. and Lockdown Cardinals, like, subscribe on YouTube, help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow as we continue to push towards 14,000 subscribers before we get to opening day. That was always the goal, and we're under 100 away from reaching that goal.
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