Lars Nootbaar has home run, stolen base in win

Nootbaar had a single and a walk earlier in the game before starting the bottom of the ninth inning with a double. While he would come around to score, the Cardinals’ rally would fall one run short of tying the game. Nootbaar continues to mash at the plate since being activated. He’s hitting .291 with an .867 OPS and seven RBI in 16 games.

With left-hander Noah Cameron toeing the slab for the Royals, Nootbaar will get a breather. Fellow left-handed hitters Jimmy Crooks and Nathan Church are also out of the Cardinals’ lineup on Thursday. Nelson Velazquez will start in Nootbaar’s place in left field and will bat cleanup for the Cardinals on Thursday night in Kansas City.

Nootbaar was intentionally walked after hitting for Pedro Pagés in the sixth inning today. In a lefty-lefty matchup with Sam Moll in the eighth, he crushed an 83-mph sweeper 433 feet for his first homer of 2026 and 10th homer in 509 career plate appearances versus southpaws. No one would have been surprised in Nootbaar started slowly in his return from multiple surgeries, but he has two barrels and three hits through seven at-bats. Since he probably won’t start against lefties in the short term, his fantasy upside would seem to be limited. But we’ll see.

The Cardinals aren’t going to push Nootbaar from a workload standpoint by throwing him out there for an afternoon contest following a night game. It’ll be Victor Scott II in center field with Nelson Velázquez patrolling left field. The 28-year-old corner outfielder went 2-for-6 with an RBI on Friday night in his season debut.

Nootbaar made an instant impact during his season debut, collecting a pair of hits, including an RBI double in the sixth inning of Friday’s series opener at Busch Stadium. The 28-year-old reached base safely in two of six plate appearances out of the leadoff spot following a 10-week absence at the outset of the year recovering from offseason surgery on both heels. He’ll have some fantasy appeal in deeper mixed leagues as the Cardinals primary leadoff option against right-handed pitching.

The 28-year-old outfielder missed the first 10 weeks of the season while recovering from offseason surgery on his heels. He finished up a minor league rehab assignment at Triple-A Memphis on Wednesday and is finally ready to contribute for the Cardinals. He’ll start in left field and bat leadoff against Reds’ right-hander Brady Singer on Friday evening in St. Louis.

Nootbaar has wrapped up a minor league rehab assignment and will rejoin the Cardinals for Friday’s contest at Busch Stadium after missing the first 10 weeks of the season recovering from offseason surgery on his heels. The 28-year-old will take over as St. Louis’ starting left fielder. He offers some appeal as a power/speed source in deeper mixed leagues but hasn’t topped 15 homers or 11 steals in any of the last five seasons.

Nootbaar will get at least two additional rehab contests under his belt before potentially being activated for Friday’s series opener against the Reds, which is when his rehab assignment clock expires. The 28-year-old is working his way back from offseason surgery on both heels. He should make it back to St. Louis by the end of the week.

Nootbaar went 0-for-3 in his first game at Triple-A after going 2-for-4 with a walk, a home run, and two runs scored in two games at Low-A. The 28-year-old had surgery on both heels in the offseason, so we should expect him to treat this rehab assignment as his full spring training. That being said, since he’s already in Triple-A, the chances of him joining the Cardinals by the start of June seem really good. Nootbaar hasn’t quite broken out the way people have hoped, but he has a career 9.7 percent barrel rate and 45.2 percent hard hit rate with a swinging strike rate of just 7.1 percent. At some point, that level of quality contact is going to produce results.

Nootbaar is going to need a couple weeks of game action before he’s ready to make his season debut. The 28-year-old corner outfielder underwent surgery on both heels last October and has been brought along slowly with his ramp-up process this spring.