The St. Louis Cardinals are getting one of their most important position players back this week. Lars Nootbaar is expected to make his 2026 season debut on Friday after undergoing surgery on both heels during the offseason, the team confirmed Monday.
Nootbaar has been one of the most underrated players in baseball when healthy. He posted a .376 on-base percentage and slugged 18 home runs in 124 games during the 2024 season, and his combination of plate discipline and defense in the outfield makes him the kind of glue player every contender needs.
The heel surgery was the latest in a string of issues that have kept him off the field. Nootbaar has dealt with rib, oblique, and lower body injuries throughout his career, and 2025 was largely a lost season. Coming back from a double heel procedure is unusual and the recovery timeline was always going to be conservative.
The Cardinals are 31-32 entering Tuesday’s action and very much in the mix in the National League Central. The Cubs and Brewers are ahead of them, but the division remains winnable, and getting Nootbaar back at full health could be the kind of midseason boost that changes the calculus on whether St. Louis is a buyer or seller at the August 3 trade deadline.
The Cardinals have been getting solid production from Jordan Walker and Brendan Donovan, but the outfield has been a sore spot, and adding a left-handed bat with on-base ability and plus defense addresses the biggest weakness on the roster. Nootbaar also gives manager Oliver Marmol another option at the top of the lineup, where his patience and ability to grind out at-bats sets the table for the bigger bats behind him.
There is no expectation Nootbaar will hit the ground running. He has not seen live pitching in months, and the Cardinals will be cautious about workload. But if he can be himself by July, St. Louis is suddenly a much more dangerous team, and the National League Central race could look very different a month from now.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
