{"id":469872,"date":"2026-02-10T04:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T04:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/469872\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T04:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T04:43:10","slug":"cardinals-doubt-28-year-old-will-be-ready-for-opening-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/469872\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Doubt 28-Year-Old Will Be Ready for Opening Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St. Louis Cardinals\u2019 outfield isn\u2019t expected to be at full strength when the 2026 Major League Baseball season kicks off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Opening Day isn\u2019t until March, but it has already been known that outfielder Lars Nootbaar would be worked along slowly after undergoing surgery on both of his heels this offseason.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

If you like our content,\u00a0choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/a> dropped an update on Monday for the outfielder.<\/p>\n

“He’s expected to report to Spring Training and continue his rehab here,” Goold wrote. “At last check, he’s making strides, but there is a high level of caution for him and a very conservative approach that will continue here in Florida. The Cardinals are planning as if he won’t be ready for Opening Day. They will know more about that first month of the season as this first month of spring unfolds. They’ve been encouraged by his recovery thus far. <\/p>\n

The Cardinals’ outfield is up on the air\"St.<\/p>\n

Sep 6, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar (21) makes the catch on a fly ball to left field by San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey (14) in the second inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Vizer-Imagn Images | Tim Vizer-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

“Who is LF? Well, that could be Alec Burleson if Iv\u00e1n Herrera is at first base. That could be the right-handed bat they were looking into signing\/trading. That could be a surprise like Torres. Lots of ways this could go for the Cardinals.”<\/p>\n

The Cardinals could certainly use a big season from the 28-year-old. If he hadn’t undergone double heel surgery this offseason, there’s a chance we could’ve been talking about him like Brendan Donovan, Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras. But Nootbaar’s trade value isn’t high right now after going under the knife. <\/p>\n

Nootbaar has two seasons of control left<\/a>. He’s a five-year veteran entering his sixth season. The Cardinals could use Nootbaar in the lineup as fast as possible because of the trade reasons. But that’s not all. The Cardinals also aren’t extremely deep right now in the outfield, so they also need him in the short term in general. If he’s in the outfield, then Burleson can replace Contreras at first base. <\/p>\n

Spring Training will begin this week and we should get more updates on Nootbaar very soon.<\/p>\n

More MLB: Cardinals Should Take Up Lance Lynn on Last-Second Trade Idea<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St. Louis Cardinals\u2019 outfield isn\u2019t expected to be at full strength when the 2026 Major League Baseball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-469872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}