No Noot Is Not Good News

The injury bug on the outfielder leads to another crack at the roster

You know what they say, it’s spring training for the medical staff as well. This team is giving them the chances to get their reps in.

The shadow of Tommy Edman’s wrist has loomed over the entire camp and, given he’s still not really hitting, our expectation has become reality and he’ll start the season on the injured list. Sonny Gray spiked many a heart rate by leaving his last start with a hamstring issue, but all indications are that he’s going to be fine and it’s fairly mild. That said, there’s still a reasonable chance that he’ll miss Opening Day, though he could be back by the home opener a week later.

Today, however, the Nootbaar was raised.

Lars Nootbaar fell—he didn’t dive for a ball, he didn’t swing too hard, he fell—over the weekend. The initial expectations were that he was a little sore, he’d need another day or two, and things would be fine. So when John Mozeliak announced this afternoon that he had two cracked ribs, people were understandably taken aback.

Nootbaar was someone that was going to be worth watching during the spring. He had a solid year last year, when he was on the field, and the reports of him working with Nolan Arenado to increase power were intriguing. Put a guy like him with his strike zone knowledge and OBP at the top of the lineup with the potential to also start a game 1-0 and that’s a fun piece to the puzzle. He even was hitting .444 this spring (4/9), though he had yet to see any balls go for extra bases.

The club isn’t ruling him out for Opening Day but let’s be honest, it’s going to happen. The indications were he wouldn’t be doing much swinging for the next 10-14 days. Opening Day is in 20. It may be a short IL stint but he’s going to start there, it seems pretty clear.

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So what does that do to the Opening Day roster projection? Let’s throw some more pieces of the puzzle on the table and see if we can make a picture.

Catcher (2): Willson Contreras, Ivan Herrera

Again, barring the injury bug somehow hitting one of these two (and that would be pretty disasterous), this is not going to change and there’s no need to really talk about it.

Infield (7): Nolan Arenado, Matt Carpenter, Brandon Crawford, Brendan Donovan, Paul Goldschimidt, Nolan Gorman, Masyn Winn

This is pretty locked down as well. As much as you’d like to maybe see a Thomas Saggese in this mix, there’s no spot for him and there’s not a pressing need. Besides, does he have a leadership degree? I don’t think so.

Outfield (4): Alec Burleson, Dylan Carlson, Michael Siani, Jordan Walker

A few days ago, we were talking about how Burleson has limited options to make this team. Now not only is he in line to make it but Siani is as well.

John Mozeliak has the amazing tendency to hold, hold, hold until the crunch is too pressing to be denied, only to then find out the depth wasn’t as deep as we thought. He held catchers forever, only to see the club need to acquire one when Yadier Molina finally retired. He went through the pitching depth in various trades and then 2023 happened. This winter, he traded off Tyler O’Neill (who, in fairness, is hurt in Boston) and Richie Palacios because there were too many outfielders. Now there’s not enough.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t undo those trades and the return is likely to help the Cardinals. It’s just remarkable how that happens.

Anyway, everyone is starting to buzz around Victor Scott II since there are these openings, but at the risk of looking foolish like I did last spring about Jordan Walker, I just can’t see how Scott makes the team for injuries that might be cleared up before the end of May. Sure, Scott could get on the roster, steal 10 bases in two weeks, and force the club into difficult decisions. This front office doesn’t really like difficult decisions, though, and it’s much more likely that they won’t give Scott that chance. Add in the fact they’d have to add him to the 40-man and the fact they liked Siani enough not to drop him over the winter and I think that’s where the edge goes. Though we’ll see—VS2 did start at leadoff tonight in the game against the Nationals.

All of this gives a real clear shot for Dylan Carlson to get some runway. If he can’t take advantage and gets off to a slow start, he might never recover. The two for 18 in the spring isn’t cause for alarm but it isn’t a data point toward him figuring it out, either.

Starting rotation (5): Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn, Steven Matz, Miles Mikolas, Zack Thompson

The Cardinals were thinking about a six-man rotation for the early going before Gray went down and they still may. I think with his injury they’ll likely put him on the injured list early enough that he can come off for the home opener. It gives them a chance to take another pitcher with them on that early West Coast trip.

I still think Thompson has a leg up on Matthew Liberatore, but if the club does use a spot starter in the early going they both might wind up with a fairly equal number of chances. Given the way that Gibson and Lynn have started the spring, it may be that the club keeps Liberatore around as the long relief option because the club can’t let them eat the innings at the current rate.

Bullpen (8): Ryan Fernandez, Giovanny Gallegos, Ryan Helsley, Andrew Kittredge, Matthew Liberatore, Keynan Middleton, Riley O’Brien, JoJo Romero

I’m not real confident here. I feel like they will try to take Andre Pallante north but I’m not sure who gets swapped out. The only real option would be Liberatore but I think, for reasons listed above, they take him along at least until Gray returns. It would be very interesting to see if the club tries to work out a deal for Fernandez’s rights so he can go to Memphis and not have to be on the active roster. He’s done pretty well this spring and I don’t think the Cards would just offer him back without trying to negotiate. Romero’s been a little shaky this spring but it’s four innings. It’s unlikely that will undermine the great work he did down the stretch last season.

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The club has already seen its depth tested. Edman’s injury (and the fact that he was starting in one spot and backing up another) has already led to the addition of Crawford. Gray’s injury should have scared the front office into realizing how thin the rotation was without him but it doesn’t seem to have moved the needle. Nootbaar’s injury may be the one most eligible to be covered by current personnel, though an outfield of Walker-Carlson-Burleson does leave something to be desired. Another reason for Siani to go north and Burleson be mainly regulated to DH duties.

If this is the worst the Cardinals have to deal with when it comes to injuries, things are going to be OK. If this is just a harbinger of how the season is going to go, it could be another long year.

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This weekend, my son and I went a couple of towns over to a game store and played in a pre-release event for Star Wars Unlimited. It’s a trading card game in the vein of Magic the Gathering but 1) less complicated, it seems (my son plays Magic and listening to him talk about it can be hard to follow) and 2) Star Wars. I wasn’t sure how I’d do playing a game style I’d never really played before, but I held my own and had a good time. The starters and boosters got released today and I’ll pick some up soon. I have a weakness for collecting—the tubs of ‘80s/’90s baseball cards in my garage and the almost full set of X-Wing miniatures in our hall china cabinet can attest to that—but the fact that the game is fun and really easy to learn helps a lot.

Speaking of Star Wars, we’re getting close to the midpoint of The Bad Batch with episodes 6 and 7 coming on Wednesday. Lots of stuff being setup and I think, much like The Clone Wars helped revitalize and recontextualize the prequels, what Dave Filoni and the crew are going to do with the various Disney+ shows is going to for the sequels. There’s not been any replacement animation show announced but you have to figure something is coming sooner or later. TCW, Bad Batch, and Rebels were all excellent and while Resistance was a bit of a disappointment, I do wonder if it had been able to go three or four more seasons (or if there had been a gap between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi that it could have explored instead of the two movies happening in the span of 48 hours or so) it might have developed into something. I would very much like Lucasfilm to get out there with another animated offering.

Still finishing up Runnin’ Redbirds (I’m close—reading about the ‘82 World Series now) but after that I’ll get started on Cardinal Dreams: The Legacy of Charlie Peete and a Life Cut Short. I’ve done a lot of reading on the history of the club but Peete’s name is not one that I recall off-hand, so I’m excited to fill the gap in my knowledge. Authors of both books should be on Meet Me at Musial sometime this summer to discuss their works.

Speaking of Musial, we continue to have a great run of guests. Last week it was Kyle Reis talking prospects, this week it was Will Leitch giving his own spin on what is going on with the club. While I do miss having Allen on the show—one of the reasons we’ve started the “Coach’s Corner” talks at the end of each week’s episode—it’s been fun getting to chat with so many great people. That’s not even including the divisional preview series I’ve started where I’m going to talk with a blogger from each of the divisional rivals. Milwaukee was this past Monday and I’ve got the Cubs scheduled for Monday and the Reds for Friday in the week coming up.