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The St. Louis Cardinals have not enjoyed the season they were expecting. However, they have turned things around to an extent and are rocking a 47-42 record entering Monday's game against the Washington Nationals.
With the MLB Trade Deadline approaching, it will be interesting to see which direction the franchise goes on. One player who has been injured for a large part of the season is outfielder Lars Nootbaar. He was just activated ahead of Monday's game against the Nationals after being out since the end of May.
But, Nootbaar revealed he got a DEXA x-ray to try and get answers as to why he has been going through so many injuries (h/t John Denton of MLB.com).
‘As a precautionary measure to try and figure out why he has been injured so often, #STLCards RF Lars Nootbaar went and got a DEXA scan on his body. The dual-energy X-ray measures bone density by passing two X-ray beams of different energies through the body. That’s why I went and got a DEXA scan before I headed out to just be like, ‘Are my bones made of bone? What’s the deal here?’ Everything came back great, which was good and I was happy about that.”
Nootbaar has been injured numerous times throughout his time in the big leagues, including five different IL trips in the last 1 1/2 seasons. So, he is just trying to get answers.
Lars Nootbaar's return is big for the Cardinals
By the end of it all, Nootbaar got good results from the scan:
“They said my bones are very strong, but when you are running into things, [injuries] are part of it. It’s a microcosm of life and things aren’t always going to go great.”
So, this is a positive step for both Nootbaar and the Cardinals. On the year, he is hitting just .234 with five home runs and 19 RBI in 39 games. In 2023, he hit .261 with 14 home runs and 46 RBIs in 117 games. Still, having Nootbaar in the regular lineup is going to be a big boost for the Cardinals team.
Nootbaar missed the past 35 games for the Cardinals due to an oblique strain, so they got good news on Monday as he was activated from the IL. The biggest question for Nootbaar is whether or not he can stay healthy as he has failed to play in more than 120 games in a season since entering the league.
Cardinals manager Oli Marmol was excited about the return of Nootbaar, per Bally Spots Midwest: “It's exciting to have him back. Team's playing well — any time you can inject a good player into a team that's doing well, that's a good thing.”
The Cardinals outfielder returned with a single in the top of the fourth inning against the Nationals, and everybody is certainly hoping he can stay healthy to provide the Cardinals lineup with a boost. They finish a four-game set with the Nationals on Monday before hosting the Kansas City Royals for two games and then a four-game set with the NL Central rival Chicago Cubs.
