COLUMN: Cardinals grow their own stars, like Nolan Gorman

When the legends fade away, a new generation rises to take their place.

Nolan Gorman, two days after experiencing Opening Day for the first time of his young career, hit two home runs on Sunday to give the St. Louis Cardinals their first series win of the season.

Gorman hit two homers and six RBI in nine at-bats during the opening series, following up a season in which he hit 14 home runs in 89 games.

“You've got to go back to his offseason, that's where the changes really took place,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of Gorman's improved plate discipline. “He was tasked with making some changes. Immediately in spring, you could tell we had a different player. Mechanically and his overall personality. There's a calmness and confidence in what he is doing.”

“It's good to see it's coming together,” Gorman said. “The confidence is definitely building. I've just got to continue it.”

On any other team, Gorman’s early success would stand out as a signal of the arrival of the next franchise superstar. On the Cardinals, he’s simply another cog on the machine, one of many ripe, bright red tomatoes in a garden. The Cardinals are practically growing Gormans.

The Cardinals entered the season with five players they selected in the first round of the MLB Draft, including Gorman, who was their first-round pick in 2018. Dylan Carlson (2016), had been among the Cardinals' starting outfielders for the past two seasons. Jack Flaherty (2014), is among St. Louis’ strongest starting pitchers and threw five no-hit innings against the Blue Jays on Saturday.

The Cardinals picked Jake Woodford in the CB-A round (39th overall) in 2015, the same draft in which Jordan Hicks was selected as a supplemental pick (105th overall).

Jordan Walker, who made his MLB debut on Opening Day, was their first round draft choice in 2020. Alec Burleson, who hit his first home run of the season on Sunday against Toronto, was their compensatory pick (70th overall) that year.

More than half of the Cardinals roster is comprised of players that were drafted and developed by the organization, which is unique, at least, to the rest of the National League Central.

“They make strides to try to get better every year,” Gorman said. It's just a testament to the Cardinals in their development and what they put into the guys coming up.”

The Cardinals operate like a local mom & pop with the success of Target. Even their selections for manager are unique to the rest of the league. With a position where other teams try to make a splash with a big-name hire, the Cardinals have hired their last three managers from within.

After Tony LaRussa retired on top in 2011, the Cardinals selected Mike Matheny, who was Yadier Molina’s predecessor and the starting catcher for the 2004 World Series runner-ups. The next guy was Mike Shildt, who at the time had been a coach within the Cardinals’ organization since 2004.

Marmol, who started his coaching career in the Cardinals’ minor league system in 2011 and after a five-year stint on the big league coaching staff (2017-21), became the youngest manager in MLB, at 35 years of age.

“I think at the end of the day, you find pride in certain things and certain organizations are different,” Marmol said. “This organization has a lot of pride in being able to grow its own players and have them contribute at the big league level, and we are doing that. There's a lot of continuity in our minor league system and how we think and how we operate. We're pretty prideful in being able to do that at a high level and we'll continue to do that.”

The foundation of this franchise is something that is the envy of every team that attempts a rebuild. It has afforded them to make big trades to get Paul Goldschmidt, Marcell Ozuna, and Nolan Arrenado. Sometimes it hurts to see the departing prospects eventually star in the show, especially when two seasons of Ozuna cost two Cy Young caliber pitchers in Zac Gallen and Sandy Alcantara.

But the machine keeps moving along and is in position for its 16th consecutive winning season.