Brown hard at work with Cards' young hitters

This story was excerpted from John Denton’s Cardinals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Knowing full well that his success as the Cardinals' first-year hitting coach could boil down to getting young sluggers Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker back on track, Brant Brown recently used proximity to his advantage to jump-start the task at hand.

Not long after being hired on Oct. 22, Brown began reaching out to hitters to introduce himself, explain his pillar beliefs about plate approach and schedule times to drill together. Before the 53-year-old Brown could get too deep into the process, Gorman called him for an introduction. It was then that they learned they are practically neighbors in their Peoria, Ariz., offseason homes.

“I knew of him, but I didn't know him personally,” Brown said of Gorman. “When me getting the job was announced, [Gorman] was one of the first guys to reach out. We started talking, and I said, ‘Listen, since you're so close, I can make a house call, or you can come by my house. I've got some stuff I want to run by you, I want to show you yourself on paper and I want to go over your movement profile when swinging.’

“So we’ve already begun that process, and it’s gone well. We actually did it before he went to his bachelor party, and I texted him afterward and he did make it back safely. He’s still kicking, and I’m looking forward to building relationships like that with all the guys.”

Brown’s relatability to players, his love of teaching hitting and his all-gas, no-brakes mentality are some of the reasons the Cardinals hired him to try to repair an offense that slumped badly in 2024. St. Louis ranked 12th in the National League in runs (672), 12th in homers (165) and 13th in RBIs (639).

Brown, who hit .247 with 45 home runs and 146 RBIs from 1996-2000 with the Cubs (twice), Pirates and Marlins, has been teaching hitting at various levels of baseball for the past 18 years. After six years of working at two Minor League levels, Brown has taught hitting in the big leagues with the Dodgers, Marlins and Mariners. He helped Miami reach the postseason as an NL Wild Card in 2023, but he was unable to fix Seattle’s struggling offense in ‘24 before being let go.

Skip Schumaker, a two-time World Series champion as a player with St. Louis and someone whose opinion still carries a lot of weight with the Cardinals, raved about the intensity and attention to detail that Brown coached with when they worked together with the Marlins. Undoubtedly, Schumaker’s glowing praise helped Brown land the job as the Cards’ hitting coach.

“I’m a very focused individual, and sometimes that’s a gift and a curse -- I know that about me,” said Brown, a native of Porterville, Calif., and a third-round pick in the 1992 MLB Draft by the Cubs. “That [focus] is a way you can earn some respect with hitters, because they know that I’ve got their [back]. They know that I’m going to give them a pat when they need it, and I’m going to tell them the truth when they need the truth.

“I want to honor them in that way, and it’s a special requirement of a coach, is knowing when to apply that. I want them to know that they are good and that they’re here for a reason. They have to carry some sort of confidence up there, because if you don’t, you’re letting the opponent affect you. They want us to doubt ourselves. We want to do what we want to do and not what they want us to do. My style of coaching is that we want our hitters knowing that while they are executing.”

Brown wants to get Gorman, 24, and Walker, 22, back to executing at the levels they were used to prior to their struggles in 2024.

Gorman’s whiff (38.7%) and strikeout (37.6%) rates soared in 2024, and he finished the year with Triple-A Memphis. Walker also played in 84 games with the Redbirds, and he hit just .201 with five homers in 51 MLB games.

“Nolan works out at a place in Scottsdale [Ariz.], so next week I'm going to visit him while he works out,” Brown said. “With [Walker], we’re going to make a trip to Jupiter [Fla.] in December, where a bunch of those guys are training, and talk with them, go to dinner and form relationships.

“With [Gorman and Walker], once we get on the same page, we’ll identify things we can improve and get to work. The only way out is through, right? You must make adjustments to what the league is telling you [what you] can and cannot hit. Your job as hitting coach is to increase hitters’ values and improve their hot and cold spots.”