The Cardinals announced Friday that outfielder Lars Nootbaar has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 30, with an oblique strain. Infielder Jose Fermin is up from Triple-A Memphis to take Nootbaar’s spot on the active roster. St. Louis also announced that reliever Giovanny Gallegos is headed to Memphis on a minor league rehab assignment.
Nootbaar, 26, missed the first two weeks of the season with a rib injury and will now head back to the injured list. He’s out to a .234/.337/.404 start to the season, with plenty of underlying indicators that improved performance could be on the horizon once healthy. Nootbaar’s 13.4% walk rate remains characteristically excellent, as does his 20.6% chase rate on pitches off the plate. He’s been slightly more aggressive on pitches within the strike zone this season, and Nootbaar’s 92.1 mph average exit velocity, 21.7% line-drive rate and massive 52.8% hard-hit rate are all career-high marks. Given the plate discipline and quality of contact, an uptick in his offensive output seems quite likely — provided this oblique injury doesn’t hinder him upon his return.
With Nootbaar headed to the injured list, the Cardinals will likely give more playing time in right field to Alec Burleson and Dylan Carlson. The switch-hitting Carlson is the vastly superior defender but has also posted a woeful .139/.244/.139 slash in a tiny sample of 41 plate appearances. Burleson is a poor defender but sports a far more impactful .289/.321/.428 slash with five homers in 160 turns at the plate.
Fermin was up with the big league club earlier this season but went just 3-for-18 with a trio of singles in that brief look. The 25-year-old has decimated Triple-A pitching this season, raking at a .346/.461/.615 pace with six homers and 10 doubles to along with a 10-for-10 showing in attempted stolen bases. He’s walked 19 times — a hearty 14.8% rate — against a minuscule five punchouts in Memphis this year (3.9%).
Gallegos, 32, allowed a dozen runs in nine innings this season before landing on the injured list due to a shoulder impingement. It was a wildly out-of-character showing for the typically solid Gallegos — one that included a career-low 92.5 mph average fastball. From 2019-23, Gallegos was one of the Cardinals’ steadiest bullpen arms, logging a combined 3.14 ERA with a very strong 30.7% strikeout rate against just a 6.4% walk rate in 238 1/3 innings.
Gallegos is in the second season of a two-year, $11MM contract that includes a $6.5MM club option. If he looks like his typical self in his return from the IL, that’ll be an easy call for the Cardinals to pick up, but the right-hander’s disastrous start to the 2024 season has rendered what looked like a straightforward call something of an open question.
MLB Pickle curse?
Every time I see Lars’ name I hear it pronounced in Schwarzenegger’s Austrian accent.
Like a good Nootbah.
Deja vu O’Neill. Every year.
What exactly is your point fella?
Fermin should be up and Crawford DFA. Walker probably should come back up for Noot. Need a RH hitting outfielder. Walker not hitting for any power but defense is probably holding him back also
Yeah, why Walker is still in the minors is frickin’ dumb. With Winn’s confidence right now it’s the perfect time to bring up Walker who has hit well at AAA except no Home runs.
Fermin IS coming up, but yes, Crawford should be DFAed. I was thinking they were just waiting for Edman to come back so that they’d have a backup SS, but Fermin has gotten a decent amount of playing time at SS in the minors to where they should just give that job to him.
As for Walker, they don’t need him to come back up yet until his offense has fully recovered. They have plenty of right-handed hitters elsewhere in their lineup that it doesn’t matter that Carlson is their only right-handed OF until Edman gets back
Going to be interesting to see how the Cards play it once Edman returns. Gorman has made strides as a defender, but his inexperience shows at times but he is really good on double plays, but he still isn’t in Edman’s class, overall. I would start Edman in center the iagainst left-handers. Then mix and match with Edman finishing games at second when ahead or tied. Lots of options, mostly favorable.
Not going anywhere for a while? Have a Nootbaar.
If some of these guys spent half the time on mobility that they spend on strength training, they wouldn’t get hurt every two weeks.
Man you got all the answers. Can’t believe you aren’t working for a big league club and sharing your knowledge with them.
If there was more money in it, I would have interest in it. Trainers in MLB make around $80k max. I will stick to running my own business in the fitness world, as it’s seemed to work for me for the last 14 years.
And knowing the importance of mobility isn’t anything new. Players just don’t prioritize it because it’s relatively boring.
Much like most things in society, we’d rather react to a problem instead of preventing it.
Lol OK junior
Yet honestly you’re here reacting to the difference between mobility and strength more than trying to prevent how mobility is “boring” because there’s not much money into doing so…
I don’t personally find mobility boring, and I stress it in a big way with the people that I work with.
I just know from my experience of working with athletes that most don’t prioritize mobility because the main benefit of it shows up in not getting hurt as opposed to strength training or plyometric training, you can measure your strength, speed and explosiveness.
Case in point: Giancarlo Stanton lost weight this past offseason and focused on mobility. We are almost to June, and he’s played in 51 of 58 games. That’s a big deal for him.
If I was a team trainer, I’d have guys on an iv drip with a vitamin kicker after every game.
Calling Burleson a “poor” defender isn’t accurate. He has average speed, but makes plays. While he isn’t great in the field, he does possess a strong, accurate, throwing arm. Poor he isn’t.
I wouldn’t use the word poor. He’s a bit below average. Certainly seen worse. Jordan Walker last year much worse. Allen Craig worse. Beltran and Berkman worse.
Burleson’s sprint speed ranks in the 16th percentile of MLB players. You can call the defensive metrics that peg him as a well below-average outfielder subjective and favor your own eyes, but objectively speaking his speed is well below-average.
Speed is one factor in defense. Yes he’s slow he’s kinda fat. But he’s not terrible his instincts are decent.
Poor is a relative term. Jordan Walker was the worst defensive outfielder in baseball for most of last year. He’s definitely better than Walker was last year. So Cardinal fans have seen worse for sure.
He also has an excellent arm (unsurprisingly, given he is a former pitcher)
I think he could be an above average 1b if given an opportunity. He has good hands and is smart. His chubbiness is less of an issue at 1b.
Well, Burleson does play 1B whenever Goldy plays DH or gets a day off. If he keeps hitting the way he’s been hitting this year, he’ll probably take over for Goldschmidt as the starting 1B next year.
Yeah I could see them bringing Goldschmidt back and having both of them share playing time at 1b. I think of you had both guys around 1 of them would perform like a starting caliber 1b. And there is always the DH if both play well
Why would Burleson need to share playing time? He’s already hitting like a starting caliber 1B. It would be a waste of money to bring a clearly declining Goldschmidt back with the money much better used for pitching.
Burleson has a 749 OPS. I would bet anything Goldschmidt outperforms him from today until the rest of the season. Burleson looks good but it’s still a small sample size. And again there is the DH. Also corner outfielder is looking like a mess too. If Goldschmidt wants to keep playing someone will give him a contract. Might as well be the Cardinals.
Down to a 730 OPS. I certainly hope he snaps out of it but I am not ready to annoint him and give him everyday playing time yet.
He is never healthy, what’s the point?
He’s healthy the good majority of the time. There are quite a few players who are more injury prone than Nootbaar is.
What do you mean Burleson will get more playing time? He’s already a full-time starter at this point.
Nootbaar makes me want a Snickers or Hersheys Peanut.
There are no better options in Memphis. Just roll with the current 4 outfielders until Nootbaar gets back. Walker is barely hitting in Memphis. I have no confidence he’s ready to come back to MLB pitching.
Recently, Burleson scored from 1st on a gapper, his sprint speed was exactly league average. He has a strong throwing arm, thus his putouts. Speed can be measured in numerable ways, and sometimes the eye test has value. To date, Burleson should be graded as an average outfielder.
To date he is a super star in the dreaded StL outfield….He is one of our best outfielders (not saying that is something to crow about).