Or, how the Cardinals can maximize their young players and improve their defense.
I’m taking a different approach with my article today and making it more free flowing and less structured and certainly less analytical but one thing I’ve been thinking about in regard to the upcoming reset is that the St. Louis Cardinals have the opportunity to balance out their roster a little bit. Or, put another way, they have the chance to prioritize defense again.
The Cardinals have gotten comfortable with playing guys out of position for a few years now. Nolan Gorman is an example of this. Jordan Walker is an example of this. And, to an extent, Alec Burleson is an example of this.
You may not think of Burleson here because he came up as an outfielder but that’s kind of the point. Burleson has always been a better first baseman than outfielder and when he came on the VEB podcast he told the writing crew that he feels more comfortable playing first base. He even began college playing first base before moving into a split between first base and the corner outfield.
He was just never really given the chance to play first base in the Cardinals system, likely because the Cardinals wanted to add some versatility to his game and hope he can learn to play a more valuable defensive position.
But now with Burleson playing the outfield, Jordan Walker playing the outfield, and Nolan Gorman playing second base, the Cardinals all have 3 players who profile similarly. They all have good bats (or bats with the potential to be good) but terrible gloves.
The 3 of them combined for -13 DRS and -19 OAA this season and that’s with Gorman and Walker both seeing time in the minors.
That can’t continue.
Now, I’m not advocating for the Cardinals to give up on any of these 3 players but they need to be able to play a position where they won’t be a liability.
There is a clear cut solution for Alec Burleson and that’s to play him at the now-vacant first base. He can play as the primary platoon partner who sees the field against right-handed pitchers while someone else, perhaps Willson Contreras or Ivan Herrera, plays the spot when lefties are on the mound.
This would not only maximize Burleson’s bat by putting him in an advantageous position but it would also maximize his defense as he’s not the most mobile defender but has played a solid first base in limited doses in the past.
The Cardinals may still be engaged with Paul Goldschmidt this offseason but this feels like a no-brainer to me.
The other two players I mentioned are more challenging. If the Cardinals decide to trade Nolan Arenado then third base opens up and one of them, likely Gorman, can move back to their natural position. This is probably the best case scenario for Gorman actually.
But I don’t expect the Cardinals to trade Arenado, unless Arenado wants out, because his trade value likely isn’t all that high. So if Arenado remains on the team in 2025, it’s harder to figure out how to use Gorman as an everyday player.
The answer is probably that he won’t be an everyday player if Arenado is on the roster. It’s hard to move Brendan Donovan off of second base after the year that he had in 2024 and he can’t even form a platoon with Gorman since they both hit left-handed.
It also doesn’t make sense to play Donovan in left field again because Lars Nootbaar and Jordan Walker will likely be manning the corner spots. So Gorman might find himself pigeonholed as a DH next year and awaiting an injury to open up playing time.
But even then, that doesn’t solve the problem of finding him a defensive home. It looks more and more like his long term future is somewhat dependent on either his ability to learn how to play an averageish second base (unlikely) or the organization’s ability to open up the hot corner (also probably unlikely).
I’ll be fascinated to see how this situation develops but after another year of Nolan Gorman at second base, I don’t think much of a case can be made for him to continue starting at the position, especially when Brendan Donovan is on the roster.
So now we’re left with Jordan Walker and here is where I will actually say that I wouldn’t mind seeing one more year of Jordan Walker in the outfield, so long as he gets a full time outfield coach to work with him all season. The reason I’m okay with this is because Jordan Walker is athletic. He may have no feel for the outfield right now but his sprint speed sits in the 78th percentile and that’s more than enough speed to cover ground in the outfield.
I’m also okay with another year of Walker in the outfield because I already have Alec Burleson pegged for first base and one of the Nolans pegged for the hot corner.
If Walker could develop into a competent right fielder then roster building gets a whole lot easier for the Cardinals. Walker is also young enough where the organization can afford to give him another year to figure things out before pivoting if he proves that he still can’t handle the position.
After talking through the situation with Burleson, Gorman, and Walker, it’s pretty clear that there isn’t an easy fix. Sliding Burleson to first base is easy enough but it seems that there are two potential paths to getting defensive value out of Gorman and Walker. The first is simply hoping that they learn how to play competent defense at their adopted position and the second is clearing a spot for them to play a more natural position.
Of course a third option is to keep forcing them into a role that isn’t a good fit, but, ideally, that doesn’t happen long term.
How the Cardinals choose to navigate this situation will be fascinating to watch and, though I am by no means advocating for a trade of Nolan Arenado, I do think such a trade could potentially open up a path to much more long term value for either Gorman or Walker.
Thanks for reading.