WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — John Nogowski left it all out there.
Even his bats.
The sensation of Cardinals spring training was the last player to leave the field following the team’s 11-3 loss Sunday to the Nationals here at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.
Carrying his bag over his shoulder, Nogowski slowly made his way across the diamond and down the first-base line toward the visitors’ clubhouse. He paused when he saw two young fans waiting patiently in the rows of otherwise empty seats closest to the right-field grass. He reached back, dug into his bag and pulled one bat from it and then another. He handed one to each boy.
They had been rewarded for their relentlessness.
Same for Nogowski.
“He elbowed his way onto the team,” manager Mike Shildt said, meaning it as the ultimate compliment.
Score one for the baseball romantics, the spring training optimists, the crowd that still believes what a player does or does not do between the middle of February and late March should matter when the opening-day roster is set.
That’s not always the case, sometimes for reasons that are obvious, and sometimes for reasons that make a team look like it is determined to ignore the obvious.
How many times has an established player’s significant track record — or significant contract — dismissed a small spring training sample size? How often has an emerging young player’s strong performance been played down by a team that hopes to delay the start of a service-time clock? It happens across baseball every year around this time, an annual reminder that even the few jobs that were supposed to be up for grabs entering camp might not have been attainable after all.
There were reasons to fear Nogowski might become a spring training fling snuffed out by business as usual.
His remaining minor-league options ripened the chance of the Cardinals kicking his can down the road. His righthanded swing made him less desirable than a lefthanded batter off the bench. His defensive profile, more limited than some of his peers, suggested he could be the Cardinal most punished by the National League’s lack of a designated hitter this season — unless that arrives at the last minute.
The existence of Paul Goldschmidt, who plays almost every game at first base, made things even tougher on Nogowski. The injury to Harrison Bader’s forearm late in camp made you wonder if the Cardinals might want more outfielders on the bench, outfielders of the proven variety. And then there’s the obvious. A 28-year-old rookie who was drafted in the 34th round seven years ago always is playing uphill. That’s if he’s still playing.
But Nogowski refused to be denied. The first baseman in the football number (34) just kept churning forward, as if fueled by the opportunity he was closing in on. Being released by the Athletics, the team that drafted him, did not stop him in 2017. The grind of independent ball could not make him quit. Last season he turned a non-roster invitation to Cardinals camp into an impressive performance that spilled over into the team’s alternate site in Springfield during the pandemic-condensed season. His major-league debut followed. One game. One hit. It made a mark.
“We felt like he was someone who could contribute,” Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said a few days ago. “He had an opportunity last year in the big leagues. He’s had an impressive camp.”
“Whatever I can do to help this team, whether that’s coming off the bench, playing left field, giving ‘Goldy’ a day off at first, whatever I need to do to help make this team a winner is my goal,” Nogowski said that day. “If (Shildt) can get me out there and give me some at-bats to help the team, that’s what I’m trying to do.”
This just in. That’s the plan. It was Shildt who broke the news.
“That’s one of the best parts of the job, being able to share a reward with somebody for their sacrifice, dedication and commitment to doing exactly what they set out to do,” Shildt said. “Nogowksi was clear. He was on a mission.”
Nogowski is 11 for 31 this spring and either is tied for or leading the Cardinals in Grapefruit League home runs (two, tied), RBIs (12, first) and walks (nine, first). He’s struck out just three times. His batting line shows a .355 average, a .500 on-base percentage and a .548 slugging percentage. No player on the team with more than 11 at-bats can beat his spring on-base plus slugging percentage of 1.048.
He’s hit strikes up in the zone, and down. He’s hit strikes thrown from the right side and the left. When pitchers don’t throw him strikes, he walks. He’s proven he can hit (or walk) off the bench as a pinch-hitter, which will be his main role moving forward.
He’s proven, with more evidence arriving in Sunday’s fifth inning, that he can drive a ball hard enough and high enough to create a sacrifice fly. And he’s proven that on top of playing soundly at first base, he can catch a hard line drive hit to him in left field. Who knows how the left-field experiment will work out, or how often he will play out there. But I’ll say this much. I fear for the wall that gets in his way, because this is the kind of guy who will run through it and emerge from the cloud of dust with the ball held over his head.
Don’t underestimate the residual benefit of making room for the longshot who refused to take no for an answer. Every team needs a Nogowski. Especially on a bench that includes multiple players, such as veteran Matt Carpenter (big contract, long track record) and infielder Edmundo Sosa (out of minor-league options) whose spring performances were not impressive. Too many teams too often find reasons to turn their back on camp’s hottest batter.
The Cardinals acknowledged the obvious. They made the right call.
You better believe Nogowski will show up to the ballpark every day looking for ways to prove it.
