On Tuesday, Jeff Jones announced that both Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan underwent surgeries. Donovan’s was to deal with a sports hernia, which shouldn’t impact his offseason too much. Nootbaar’s was more severe. He had two surgeries, one on each heel to repair a Haglund’s deformity. For those who don’t know, this is the same injury that Yoenis Cespedes dealt with years ago, and it cost him almost two full seasons.
The Cardinals were expected to trade at least two of their left-handed bats. Donovan and Nootbaar were among the candidates. But that has changed. I would imagine that Donovan’s value has taken some hit, but that he is still very likely to be traded. Nootbaar on the other hand, not so much.
His trade value is essentially gone now, and that ultimately changes the entire landscape of the offseason. Let me explain.
Teams had interest in several of the Cardinals left-handed bats at the deadline. But with the chance that Nootbaar could miss all of 2026, now nobody is going to want him. Now, the Cardinals can still clear out their logjam of left-handed hitters. They can trade Donovan, or potentially Alec Burleson or Nolan Gorman. I would advise against them trading Burleson, because he is one of the few solid bats the Cardinals have actually developed in quite a while.
More than anything, this impacts what the Cardinals are able to acquire in trades. They can’t get anything for Nootbaar, so they’re going to have to be very selective in what they get for players such as Donovan, Nolan Arenado and Sonny Gray. Arenado and Gray won’t bring back much at this point, but the Cardinals have to have a good idea of what they want and need.
They really need young pitching, especially if Gray wants out. They need young pitching that is at least close to Major League ready, because the farm system still needs to be built up, and the Major League staff needs to have holes filled.
I would have thought that Nootbaar could have at least gotten the Cardinals a decent young starter or two. Nothing super sexy or anything, but serviceable. That’s what they need to make sure they’re going after if and when they trade Gray and Arenado, and the same can be said for Donovan. They also need to make sure they sell high on Donovan, as he is their most valuable trade asset, even though his value might be down a little bit.
But Randy Karraker mentioned the possibility of Nootbaar being non-tendered the other day. I think that is honestly the most likely scenario with him at this point. He may not play next year, and his value has gone down the drain, so it’s good to just cut the losses at this point.
But it does change how Chaim Bloom goes about constructing his roster. He may need to also be more aggressive in free agency, something I believe he is willing to do, based on his comments. He may need to go get an outfield bat or potentially give Ivan Herrera more opportunities to play left field. But this may be the end of the line for Noot in a Cardinals uniform, as hard as it is to say. It sucks that it has to end this way, but it’s the reality of the situation.
