June 5th: Nootbaar has been officially reinstated, with Saggese optioned out as the corresponding move.
June 3rd: The Cardinals will activate Lars Nootbaar from the 60-day injured list for Friday’s series opener against the Reds, manager Oli Marmol told reporters (including Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat). St. Louis will need to make an active roster move. They already have an opening on the 40-man roster after returning Rule 5 pick Matt Pushard to the Marlins.
Nootbaar will make his season debut after a two-month plus absence. He underwent surgery to shave down bones on both heels last October. Nootbaar has appeared in 11 minor league rehab games, hitting .233 with a pair of home runs while gradually building up to Triple-A Memphis.
The injuries seemed to impact the 28-year-old outfielder last season. Nootbaar had a career-worst .234/.325/.361 slash over 583 plate appearances. His 13 home runs were similar to the totals he posted in less playing time over the prior three seasons. Nootbaar’s rate production was down from the .246/.351/.426 line he managed from 2022-24.
If he’d been healthy, Nootbaar may well have been traded over the offseason. He’s down to his final two years of arbitration control. The Cards committed to a retool in dealing a lot of shorter-term pieces. That included Brendan Donovan, who is also in his penultimate arbitration season. The Cardinals would’ve been accepting pennies on the dollar to move Nootbaar, so it made sense for them to hold him as a deadline trade chip.
That calculus may have changed with the team’s surprising start. St. Louis has won 32 of their first 60 games, putting them firmly in a muddled Wild Card picture. They’ve been a league average offense and one of the league’s better defensive teams, helping paper over a pitching staff that still doesn’t miss many bats.
While the position player group has been solid, the Cards have had one of the weaker left field situations in the National League. The lefty-hitting Nathan Church has mostly operated in a platoon with one of José Fermín or Thomas Saggese. Church is out with a minor shoulder strain but expected to begin a rehab stint tomorrow. He has a middling .247/.282/.390 batting line across 156 plate appearances. Saggese and Fermín haven’t been any better. Recent call-ups Bryan Torres and Nelson Velázquez have gotten some work over the past week.
Velázquez and Fermín are out of options and would need to be designated for assignment if taken off the MLB roster. The Cardinals probably wouldn’t have selected Velázquez’s contract on Friday if they anticipated dropping him that quickly. Torres and Saggese each have options — as does Church if the Cardinals don’t want to open an MLB spot once he’s back from injury.
Hell ya! Welcome back Noot! I hope you’re feeling healthy and ready to go.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot!
I’m guessing Torres goes down now. When Church and Urias come back soon is when it gets interesting
I think Urias might be let go or traded hes just not needed any longer. Church is probably the 4th outfielder with Walker, Nootbaar and Baez the starters once Baez gets the call.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Baez stays in Memphis until or if Noot is traded.
Absolutely. Bringing up Baez two months early makes no sense. It burns an entire year.
If you call up Baez in July you get that time basically for free you still have 6 years of team control beyond 2026 and you avoid him being a super 2. And most importantly hes earned the promotion.
Hope it’s a Scott demotion or a Gorman trade.
Who to move?
Torres is playing well and seems like a good replacement for Saggesse (for now, at least) since Thomas isn’t doing much and could hopefully benefit from more playing time in Memphis.
They just brought Torres up and knew Lars would be up soon, so doesn’t make sense to send Torres back down, IMO.
I’d love to send VS2 down, but since Church is hurt, we need Victor to play center…for now.
Go Cards!
I think I’d get Saggese some 3B time. He looked pretty solid there at times last year and has been better with the bat as of late. Hopefully Church is back within the next 10 days or so.
Do we think Crooks is up for good?
As much as Gorman is frustrating, he’s still a plus fielder (+1 DRS so far this year) and is better at 3rd than Saggesse. But Gorman is likely to got moved at the deadline, so something needs to be done that makes sense.
Saggesse has been awful at the plate, so sending him down makes sense. And he doesn’t appear to ever have much pop, so a light-hitting 3B with limited range doesn’t seem like a fit.
If Thomas is ever an everyday player, seems highly likely it’ll be at 2nd.
Would love to see JJ learn to play 3rd in the offseason and have that be his permanent spot.
Need to stop with the 3 catcher thing its silly and makes no sense. Pages has to go. Nootbaar probably sticks around until the end of the year at least but Baez needs a chance too.
Was hoping to see Pages to the Phillies this offseason. Not denying what JT brings defensively to the game, but Phillies needed to get younger and cheaper.
He could still make sense perhaps for the Phillies. Marchan hasn’t played too well this year. Wouldn’t cost much to acquire i dont think.
Carrying these three catchers makes sense if two of them can hit.
Since the team is still indulging the Herrera catching experiment, we need Pedro to be what he is…a capable receiver. And with Crooks being young and proving himself, having him catch two days/week and then DH some seems like the smart play…for now.
Once again, you’re wrong. A third catcher is absolutely needed as long as Herrera continues to DH on the days he doesn’t catch (which he will obviously continue to do). What would make absolutely no sense is to have no backup catcher available on the bench while Herrera is at DH and the other catcher is already behind the plate.
If Pagés were to be traded, they’d simply call Pozo back up as the third catcher.
Yes. KOC. That’s my short answer. It’s beyond time to end this 3 catchers. We’re also going to have to pick either Fermín or Saggese . Need outfielders playing the outfield….
Best name ever
Is there no consideration of demoting Scott? He has two minor league options remaining and we haven’t had such a black hole in the lineup since Peter Bourjos was a Cardinal.
Even if hes not starting hes an excellent bench option because of his speed and defense. I wouldnt be surprised if Scott was demoted but also fine if he stays.
I think he stays until Church comes off the IL.
He’s the only guy on the active roster (even including Nootbaar) who the Cardinals feel comfortable playing in CF regularly. Once Church returns from the IL, they might consider it.
Need both Church and Baez on the team. At that point Scott could be sent down
Good luck. Hoping he has a career year.
Keith McDonald, I remember seeing this guy hit like 3 homeruns in a cup of coffee. Was crazy. Ended up with a career slugging percentage of 1.333
3 career hits, all home runs.
Noot was a rising star and an appealing character.
Hoping he is over the injuries and still fulfils his potential.
He was not a rising star. Be played with Shohei in the WBC a few years ago and people loved his character which someone translated to being good at baseball. The cardinals proceeded to trade away players to give him everyday opportunities.
2.6fWAR age 24. 3.1fWAR age 25. Every reason to anticipate 4+ WAR for several years in his prime, with All-Star appearance(s) in a peak year(s).
Then the injuries started.
But if thats not good enough for your definition of a rising star, fine.
He was definitely a rising star before all of the injuries started happening. He was a good lead off hitter when he started coming up.
Playing with Ohtani did increase his popularity but them two have been friends since childhood, I believe there Mom’s are really good friends!
Unleash the fury just not at the nude bar, Nootbaar.
Hoping for the best and expecting the worst.
I can remember when the Cardinals would talk about trading anybody but never Lars. How things have changed. I can see a trade with Detroit they need more outfield help. Jones, cant play worth a rip in the field, and his bat is just enough to keep him on the roster for now. Perez, is starting to hit a little but he still not as good an outfielder as they need.
He’s much further along in his career than he was earlier.
For instance, the Cardinals aren’t considering trading Herrera right now. By the time Rainiel Rodriguez is ready for the big leagues, Herrera is as good as gone.
Zero chance Herrera gets traded any time soon.
100% chance he’s standing in left field next year
Just one question – is Nathan Church’s walkup song “Take Me to Church”? 🤔
The next month and a half will be interesting to see how things go. Some of the off-season thoughts many of us had regarding who would be off the team by August might be completely reconsidered. I assumed if May pitched to even a #5 type pitcher he would be moved. I figured once Noot proved his health and was still kicking out solid Statcast numbers he would be out the door. I had thought even Herrera would be shipped out with the solid catching prospects in the system. Figured JoJo would be gone and didn’t really expect the early season results out of O’Brian(he has been a bit sketchy lately but was lights out for a couple months). Playing winning and really competitive baseball changes the calculus a little. It may still make sense to move some of these pieces depending on the return, but the young pitchers aren’t really breaking down the door to fill the void. If they are still firmly in the wildcard mix at the deadline I think Baez would still get a shot to fill Noots shoes, but trading one of the late inning relievers or even May(I realize he will be a free agent at seasons end) will be pushed to the off-season or not at all.
Herrera was never going anywhere even if he had to be a full-time DH. That’s just how good of a hitter he is, alongside his youth and remaining years of team control
FREE JOSHUA BAEZ
Not with a 31% K rate.
Not until August … at the earliest. Starting his clock now makes no sense.
Saggese would be the obvious choice to send down. He’s hitting worse than everyone except Scott (who is still needed to play CF the majority of the time), he has options remaining, and he’s frankly better off getting regular playing time in AAA than starting against a lefty once every week or so.
I bet Torres or Saggese are optioned once Noot is added to the active roster. When Church comes back, I could see him shifting to CF and Scott II being the 4th outfielder. Velasquez is in a tricky spot but could be a bench bat. I agree that Urias could be designated/traded or re-assigned to Memphis if no takers. Every time I think Gorman’s done, he gets a hit or Homer to perk up.
Church just started his rehab assignment. He’ll need at least a series before he comes up.
I’d like to see Scott moved to Memphis today — with Torres and Fermin handling centerfield for a few days until Church is ready.
Saggesse is probably the easier choice to move down, but I’d move Scott ASAP. The dude just can’t hit big league pitching.
I hope Crooks is up for good. Saggese should only stay up if you are gonna give him more regular ABs at 3B. Everybody pulling for Gorman but so far seems to be same Gorman with better defense at 3B than thought . It is said Cards don’t feel good about Blaze Jordan defense at 3B so Saggese right now is other option
Well there is Fermín also
7 games–DL
I knew this was coming.
At the convenience mart this morning,
the candy bar section was crammed full of:
NOOTBAARS !!