The St. Louis Cardinals have officially called up their second-ranked overall prospect, Nolan Gorman, in preparation for him to make his Major League Baseball debut on Friday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
While many St. Louis Cardinals fans are excited to see the beginning of the much-anticipated Gorman Era in St. Louis, his debut will signal the beginning of another era as well.
With Gorman taking over at second base, St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol has said that former second baseman Tommy Edman will slide over to shortstop. Edman has played shortstop in 17 games over the last four seasons and said recently he would “be ready” to play shortstop if needed, flashing back to the position he held down during his collegiate days at Stanford.
On the surface, it’s an interesting move to shift a Gold Glove-winning second baseman to shortstop. However, as Edman recently pointed out, with the shift strategy, he often fields balls at the shortstop position, even though he is playing second base.
With Paul DeJong (sent down to Triple-A), Edmundo Sosa, and Brendan Donovan primarily holding down the shortstop position early in the season for the Cardinals, the team has a collective 0.0 bWAR at the position (well behind the position-leading 1.9 bWAR posted by the Houston Astros). Edman, however, has posted 2.5 bWAR by himself so far this season, so if he can continue that play at shortstop and Gorman can display the skills at the MLB level that have drawn rave reviews on his climb up the MiLB ladder, the Cardinals could well strengthen their lineup.
Entering Friday’s play, St. Louis ranks sixth in MLB with a combined 3.9 bWAR. They also trail the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central by four games and have gone 4-6 in their last 10, including dropping three of four on the road to the New York Mets.
The Cardinals need a spark and hope to get it from Gorman as well as third-ranked prospect Matthew Liberatore, who is scheduled to start on the mound for St. Louis on Saturday. However, Edman’s shift to shortstop could solidify a position with plenty of questions and provide an internal boost as well.