The Cardinals announced that outfielder Lars Nootbaar has been placed on the 60-day injured list. That is presumably to open a 40-man roster spot for prospect JJ Wetherholt, as it was reported a few days ago that Wetherholt would make the Opening Day roster.
It’s an unfortunate development for both Nootbaar and the Cardinals. The outfielder is coming off a down season during which he produced a .234/.325/.361 line and 96 wRC+. That was a notable drop-off from his three prior seasons, as he hit a combined .246/.351/.426 for a 118 wRC+ during that span.
In October, he underwent surgery on both heels to shave down Haglund’s deformities, which are essentially painful protrusions of bone. In the wake of that procedure, it was expected that Nootbaar could have a chance to be ready for Opening Day. It became more and more apparent that he was going to start on the IL as spring training kept going on without him appearing in a game. Now he is not only landing on the IL but it’s the 60-day version. That allows the Cards to open a 40-man spot but means Nootbaar can’t rejoin the team until late May even in a best-case scenario.
The Cards are rebuilding, meaning their players nearing free agency were mostly traded in the offseason. Nootbaar is controlled through 2027, just like Brendan Donovan was, and likely would have been moved if not for the questions about his health. Ideally, he would have been back on the field in 2026 with his production back to his pre-2025 levels. That would have made him a notable deadline trade candidate this summer.
That all could still happen but the plan is going to be delayed and Nootbaar will therefore have less time to showcase his health before the deadline. For now, the Cards are going to be giving the outfield playing time to guys like Jordan Walker, Victor Scott II, Nathan Church, José Fermín and Thomas Saggese.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images
I understand pitchers being injury prone, but hitters? Maybe less focus on the weights and more focus on Pilates and yoga.
Never heard of Kris Bryant, Mike Trout, or Anthony Rendon?
You don’t watch much baseball, do you?🤨
Nootbar will never play another full game of Baseball.
Nootbar must be related to Stanton .
The Cardinals faith in Nootbar and Walker seems unwise. I understand they’re in rebuild mode but should have traded both of them last year while they still had a smidgen of value.
Nootbaar can easily rebuild more value once he’s healthy again than he had over the offseason while injured.
It’s still too early to give up on Walker, especially now that they have the chance to give him a full opportunity on the Major League team.
By the way, Nootbaar and Weatherholt, and maybe Winn or Saggese, are the only Cardinals position players we can likely project to play above league average both offensively and defensively this year.
Unfortunately —- whoever diagnosed Nootbar as needing these surgerical procedures done to both of his feet —- has probably ruined Laar’s baseball Career!!!!
He’ll never make it back with the Cardinals!!!
Noot has been running, playing catch, and hitting BP, but he didn’t play any games this spring.
Going on the 60-day gives him at least two more weeks of rehab and still get the normal six weeks of “spring training” games.
It also gives the Cardinals 60 more days to evaluate the guys who could have (easily) been removed from the 40-man.
Rehab is essentially the same process as Spring Training for someone in Nootbaar’s position, and position players don’t need as much buildup in Spring Training as pitchers anyway. Seven to eight weeks or so of rehab to get in shape really seems excessive.
He’s been so injury-prone, I think they want to give him every opportunity to get completely healthy and productive … so they can trade him.
He got Boneitis
Time for Lars to get that sponsorship from Hershey’s and get his own chocolate candy bar. Lindt chocolate is actually better but either way. He has time on his hands.
The question is if it has nougat or not.
They would out sell Reggie bars in St. Louis for sure.
Peanut butter, caramel, chocolate and nougat. Also available in dark Chocolate
Not going anywhere for a while? Have a Nootbaar.
Lars Bars, a nice decadent nougaty nootbar
They would all come broken.
Break me off a piece of that Noot Noot bar.
He said “feet don’t fail me now” but they did.
I thought that return date was too optimistic, especially for a guy with his skill set.
They should have traded him after he failed to recruit Ohtani.
Gotta keep an eye on those Haglund’s deformities. Everyone knows this…
I’ve dealt with them for years, the doctors told me it’s not a surgery want to have because of the recovery time. At 62 I haven’t been asked play the outfield for around 45 years though.
I’m guessing Urias didn’t make the team?
I think he made the team . The slugging rbi,obp, home run leader in spring training was sent down so they could play two infielders in left
Yes he did.
He was signed to a major league deal.
He did make the team. Since he signed a Major League contract as a free agent, that’s to be assumed, so they felt they didn’t need to mention him.
Nootbar is a great guy. Teammates love him. He just needs to get healthy. I hope the best for him. He has a lot of talent!
Me thinks overrated.
The rebuild sucks, but this Spring the pitching has been great. Time will tell how the Spring translates once they play for real. Offense will probably struggle but they do have speed and defense. Should be in a lot of close games.
They have some speed and defense.
Who’s going to steal 15+ (or possibly even 10+) bases other than Scott, Winn, and Weatherholt?
Meanwhile, Burleson, Gorman, and Walker are all significantly below average defensively, as is Herrera when he catches, and Velazquez when he eventually gets called up.
So they have a 60 day window to decide who gets bumped off the 40 man once Noot is able to play. Could be much worse things to happen and maybe this will be the only 60 day IL stint for the club this year and they get it out of the way early… Hopefully he hits the ground running once he gets back in the lineup to either boost his trade stock or help the club to a surprise wild card contention… A whole lot of hopefully and maybes in there.
What the heck happened?! He is already swinging a bat and just needs to start running and fielding before beginning a rehab assignment, so I was expecting Nootbaar back in mid-April.
Was there a setback, or are the Cardinals purposely keeping Nootbaar on the IL longer than needed just to open up a 40-man roster spot for Weatherholt and give the kids more reps in LF?