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The St. Louis Cardinals are slowly but surely climbing towards relevancy in the NL Central. On Wednesday, the Cardinals took care of business against the struggling Cincinnati Reds, 5-3, to reach .500 (27-27) on the season. However, that win did not come without cost. One of their most productive players, right fielder Lars Nootbaar, had to exit the game early after sustaining an injury to his side.
Nootbaar attempted to play through the pain, as he did not immediately exit the contest after evidently feeling some pain towards his left oblique in the seventh inning. The Cardinals right fielder was grabbing onto the affected area, but it didn't seem to bother him too much as he proceeded to hit an infield single. However, he didn't last much longer in the game, as he departed from the game in the bottom of the eighth.
While the Cardinals didn't immediately pull Lars Nootbaar out of the game, the injury gave manager Oliver Marmol enough cause for concern that he saw the need to take him out an inning after the right fielder began to clutch onto his side. Now, the Cardinals will be taking a closer look at the exact severity of the injury Nootbaar sustained.
“He kind of felt something on his side, so I didn’t want him to play through it. We took him out and put [Dylan] Carlson in and we’ll take another look at it shortly,” Marmol told reporters, per John Denton, Cardinals beat reporter for MLB.com.
Lars Nootbaar was having himself a good game before he exited due to injury. He finished the Cardinals' 5-3 win over the Reds with two hits in four at-bats.
Cardinals' right field picture
Lars Nootbaar is far and away the best option the Cardinals have in right field; fresh off a 3.1 WAR (per Fangraphs) season in 2023, Nootbaar is on pace to replicate the season he had last year even if his hitting numbers have been a bit worse than last season. Now, Nootbaar might be in danger of missing some time, which means that St. Louis will have to take a look at the other options they have at the position.
Oliver Marmol turned to Dylan Carlson to replace Nootbaar in the aftermath of the injury on Wednesday night; Carlson, for what it's worth, has some experience being an everyday starter for a Cardinals team that made it to the NL Wild Card game. However, that was all the way back in 2021. The past two seasons have been a struggle, to say the least, for the 25-year old.
Carlson has struggled immensely from the plate; he is slashing .208/.307/.306 over the past two seasons to this point. The saving grace has been his ability to draw walks, but the Cardinals will prefer to get some more power production from a corner outfield spot.
Perhaps the Cardinals bring back 22-year old Jordan Walker after optioning him to Triple-A back in April after the talented youngster struggled to begin the year. Walker definitely has the power potential, and he showed last season that he could do damage when he's on a roll. But his defense has been rather unimpressive.
At the very least, the Cardinals have some acceptable options to deploy in the event that Nootbaar needs to miss extended time. They can look towards Carlson for some defensive stability, while Walker provides some offensive upside.
