The Cardinals could activate outfielder Lars Nootbaar from the injured list as soon as tomorrow, according to John Denton of MLB.com. Nootbaar, who has been on the IL since the beginning of the month with a lower back contusion, has slashed .266/.380/.390 in 184 plate appearances for St. Louis this season, good for a 118 wRC+.
As discussed by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nootbaar’s return will create something of a conundrum for Cardinals manager Oli Marmol, who has moved Tommy Edman from shortstop to the outfield in recent weeks, a change the switch-hitter has taken well to. Goold suggests that the return of Nootbaar, who can play quality defense in all three outfield spots, would give Marmol the option to shift Edman back to the infield, with Nootbaar taking over center and Nolan Gorman spending most days at DH. Otherwise, Marmol could leave Edman in the center and use Nootbaar and Dylan Carlson in the corners while allowing Jordan Walker, who has struggled to adjust to outfield work after spending most of his minor league career on the infield dirt, to DH.
Whatever defensive alignment the Cardinals end up with, Nootbaar’s return figures to help boost the club as it struggles to stay relevant in the NL Central. Despite an abysmal 29-43 record leaving them 8.5 games back in the NL Central, St. Louis still has a 12.1% chance to make the playoffs, per Fangraphs, thanks to their weak competition in the division.
More from around the Central divisions…
- Royals left-hander Ryan Yarbrough is set to begin a rehab assignment in the Arizona Complex League tomorrow, per a club announcement. That’s fantastic news for not only fans in Kansas City, but all around baseball considering the circumstances of Yarbrough’s injury. The lefty was placed on the injured list in early May with multiple head fractures after being struck in the face by a line drive off the bat of Oakland slugger Ryan Noda. Prior to his injury, Yarbrough had struggled badly across ten appearances with the Royals, posting a 6.15 ERA and 5.17 FIP in 26 1/3 innings of work.
- Following today’s news that the Pirates are poised to promote 2021 first overall pick Henry Davis to the majors tomorrow, manager Derek Shelton told reporters, including MLB.com’s Justice delos Santos, that the club’s current catching tandem of Austin Hedges and Jason Delay would remain on the roster. With Pittsburgh planning to carry three catchers as Davis breaks into the majors, it’s worth wondering how the club plans to use Davis. While the youngster was drafted and has been used primarily as a catcher, he’s also started 15 games in right field over the past two seasons while mixing in starts at DH. Of course, the DH slot in Pittsburgh is largely occupied by Andrew McCutchen, leaving right field as Davis’s most likely home on days where Hedges or Delay start behind the plate. Connor Joe and Josh Palacios are currently manning right for the Pirates in a timeshare.
Whatever gets Hedges and Delay’s bats out of the line-up the most often. I’m fine with Davis getting a start in right field once a week, but the regular rotation of Reynolds, Suwinski, Joe, Bae, and Palacios is fine. Bae has started to look much more confrontable in CF and has a .383 OBP over the last month. Palacios has been a surprisingly solid Rule 5 pick. Looks like he could be a decent part-timer/4th outfielder.
They are all 4th outfielders expect Reynolds.
Suwinski has been pretty great there this year. Yeah I am still skeptical how it will work out in the end but he is looking like a 30HR guy while being a positive contributor on defense.
Suwinski could be a 30+ home run guy but not until he learns how to hit lefties and cuts down on his strikeouts
He’s batting .138 against lefties and striking out at an alarming rate
@all about Suwinski
His strike out rate is that of a hitter who sells out for power (+/-). His walk rate is up along with his K rate. Yeah he is bad against lefties but that is not a unique trait. quite a few players have wild splits. Example: one of if not the best player in baseball Ohtani has a similar gap only he is so good the gap isn’t a big deal. Not a comparison between the two, just saying it isn’t unique to have large gaps.
By the end of the year he might be the worst starting OF in the league but right now you cant say that the pirates only have Reynolds as an everyday type of guy at the moment.
What good is a strike out when you’re trying to hit a home run when the out doesn’t produce a run?
That’s my concern
And with Reynolds in left field, Jack in right and Bae in center, they have a very formidable outfield
Bae’s speed and agility allows him to cover a lot of ground
name 7 NL outfielders having a better year?
I don’t care about what other outfielders are doing
Why is it so important to compare?
I don’t watch the box scores of other games, I only care about what these players do
You had me until the last statement. He may be an “everyday player” in the future but right now, he’s a liability against lefties. Hopefully he can correct this
You’re right about strikeouts not being a unique trait. Many in this town forget how overmatched Stargell was most of the time against lefties, and he’s a HoF’er
Disagree with TheMan’s assessment of a formidable outfield. Reynolds, Suwinski and perhaps Palacios or someone else in right makes more sense. Would like to see them work Bae more at 2nd
it’s called go to the MLB website and hit the upper right corner that says “stats”. regardless he’s having a good year by todays standards. he’s shown improvement from last year as well.
Definitley not Suwinski. Going into today, here’s where he ranked among qualified NL Outfielders:
BA: 23rd
OBP: 10th
SLG%: 4th
HRS: T-3rd
ISO: 1st
wOBA: 7th
OPS: 5th
wRC+: 7th
fWAR: 9th
Suwinski is easily a top ten OF in the NL right now, and nobody is talking about him. Bae is more of a utility man, but with an OBP over .380 over the last month, and is in the top 97th percentile of sprint speed. I agree that Palacios is a 4th OF, but Joe is more of a platoon OF than strictly a 4th OF.
no one is talking about him right now because he hasn’t improved much this year against lefties and is platooned due to his inability to hit left handed pitching
He still has enough plate appearances to qualify in rate statistics. Imo,it’s impressive nonetheless to rank top ten in pretty much every rate statistic, and have enough trips to the plate to qualify as a leader in all of them, even if he still has his woes against LHP.
Yeah, he has to improve against lefties, no doubt about it. I do think he’s done a nice job in center and if nothing else, his play there has allowed Reynolds to migrate to his more natural position
Unlike a great many others who’ve come up to the big team, I’m willing to give him a longer look. Initially I didn’t get how he jumped over numerous other “blue chippers” in the farm system but having seen so many come up and show they’re not ready, he’s at least shown a lot of upside
Now is there anyone on the Pirates staff who can work with him or is it a case like Cruz, where he should hire his own batting instructor?
Haines doesn’t seem to be the hitting guru he was in Milwaukee and his contract should not be extended after this season.
How odd it was last year when Cruz brought his own hitting coach to improve his offense yet the management didn’t put 2 and 2 together to realize that their coach wasn’t doing his job effectively
I like Suwinski and think he’s done a nice job in the outfield but like other players on this team he doesn’t seem to know the strike zone and strikes out too much while looking
Jack has a shot to be an All Star this year if he has a decent two weeks. probably not in top 6 but someone always gets hurt. he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
I don’t put alot into rate statistics or analytics or data, I look at results in production
While he’s improved in every offensive category he’s still striking out 32% of the time
decent 2 weeks? I’m still waiting for him to have a decent series.
Again, that’s another thing about Pirates player development. The guys who get here don’t seem to know basics
Last season, we witnessed the love affair Brubaker, Wilson and Thompson had with throwing heat dead red and dropping off speed pitches down Main Street. Kayakers in the Allegheny loved them
Keller learned last August that the corners are his and that spin pitches off the edge are to his advantage. Brubaker showed signs of evolution this past spring then had an injury.
I think Marin does know what he’s doing, at least
But jeez, plate discipline where hitters like Cruz, Suwinski and Hayes—their three young leaders—remains extremely lacking. And the other young guys are often clueless
Whether it’s a failure to know the strike zone, lack of picking up spin or off speed pitches or just ignorance about situational hitting, it’s almost as if their minor league experience amounted to, “Just go up there and swing”
And it hasn’t improved at this level
Hayes in particular is confounding. Nice hot streak he had but someone needs to turn him around
if they’re going to keep Hedges and Delay on the roster, someone will have to be either sent back to Indy if options are available or released
Palacios has too much of an upside in my opinion. He has potential for power
And they need to keep their pitching fresh and available.
So who’s it going to be?
Could be Mathias. Only thing he’s been good for so far is the occasional walk. But then you’re left with just one extra infielder on the roster of he is sent to Indy, and that’s Bae. If it is a pitcher, I’d guess Yerry De Los Santos.
I doubt that they would go back to only having 12 pitchers but I could be wrong
They do have a glut of outfielders and while I wish it was Connor Joe hitting the road, he fills in for Santana on occasion at first base. I imagine when Choi returns, Joe might be the next to go
Mathias isn’t worthy of a roster spot despite many here claiming he had the potential to become a good hitter.
Delay hasn’t been bad offensively in limited plate appearances. I don’t know much about the pirates though, so can you give a little more insight about him?
Put Bae at leadoff and leave him there!
IMO: Davis should split time with Hedges at primarily. We won’t know how he handles it until they hand it to him. When he isn’t catching splitting time at Right/DH depending on how things work out. His big sell is his bat getting as many of those while he has the chance is what they need.
It is worth noting that it has been said his defense has improved and when he was drafted it was noted that he was baseball mature with a gun of an arm. I have not seen much myself lately though.
His ability to block behind the plate was a real issue. He allowed seven passed balls last year in just 324 innings. If he were to catch 800 innings, he would have allowed 17 PBs. This year he’s only allowed one in nearly the same number of innings (302.1) He has also made some great catches in RF. From what I’ve seen, he’s not terribly slow either. He’s not the next JT Realmuto, but probably runs at a fringe-average rate.
Good thing they kept nutbar in favor of Sean Murphy…
Way to go, Mo!
GóóoóóooooooooooooooRedbirds, Let’s Get this thing back on track an kick slubz ass. Division Woo
Jordan Walker at DH seem the most sensible move to me.
Given Gorman’s defensive improvement at 2B, I have to agree, and that’s exactly what they’re doing for the game this afternoon.
PIT’s plans for Davis remind me a lot of the way STL first worked Terry Kennedy into the mix many moons ago. Kennedy had nothing left to prove in the minors, and the Cards did not have a glaring need behind the plate, so they started him out in the OF to get his bat in the lineup, and it worked quite well.
The clear move should be to cut DeJong loose. The organization is for some reason obsessed with running him out there and taking opportunities away from others despite his clear lack of ability and production.
Why? He’s actually hitting decently this year and like always is playing a good defensive shortstop. How is a 101 OPS+ with 10 homers and .8 bWAR in 2 months of playing time a lack of production?!
Guys like Donovan and Burleson are worse players on both offense and defense. DeJong clearly deserves to continue starting, let alone just not be released. Even if they didn’t want him anymore, he’s now worth a couple decent prospects in a trade.