Lars Nootbaar expected to be activated by Cardinals for Friday's series opener vs. Reds

Lars Nootbaar is expected to return to the Cardinals' active roster for Friday's series opener against the Cincinnati Reds at Busch Stadium, manager Oli Marmol told reporters, including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. The activation would mark Nootbaar's season debut after a two-months-plus absence following surgery last October to shave down bones on both heels.

What happened

Per the report, St. Louis will activate Nootbaar from the 60-day injured list ahead of Friday's game. The club will need to make a corresponding active roster move to accommodate him, though the 40-man roster picture is already partially resolved: the Cardinals returned Rule 5 pick Matt Pushard to the Marlins, opening a spot on the 40-man.

As a general roster mechanic, the 60-day IL removes a player from the 40-man count entirely — so Nootbaar's return requires both a 40-man slot and a 26-man active roster spot. The Pushard return addresses the former; the latter move has not yet been specified per the report.

Nootbaar has been working his way back through 11 minor league rehab games, hitting .233 with two home runs while gradually building up to Triple-A Memphis. The rehab arc — gradual, bilateral, originating from an October procedure on both heels — is the kind of timeline that doesn't lend itself to a clean declaration of return so much as a slow accumulation of evidence that the feet are cooperating. Apparently they are.

Why it matters

Nootbaar's return matters less for the standings — more on that in a moment — and more as a signal about what the Cardinals are working with heading into the second half of the season. He is one of the more distinctive offensive profiles on the roster, and his absence has been a long one.

The heel surgery last October was the culmination of what appeared to be an injury that weighed on him throughout the prior season. Per MLB Trade Rumors, the injuries seemed to impact the outfielder during that campaign. His slash line of .234/.325/.361 over 583 plate appearances represented a career-worst across the board, a meaningful step back from the .246/.351/.426 line he posted from 2022 through the prior three seasons. His 13 home runs were roughly in line with what he had produced in earlier years, but those totals came in considerably fewer plate appearances — meaning the rate at which he was doing damage declined even as the raw count held.

Whether the heels were the primary driver of that decline is not something MLB Trade Rumors states directly, only that the injuries "seemed to impact" him. That's a careful hedge worth preserving: the outlet stops short of drawing a firm line between the bilateral heel condition and the down offensive year. What is clear is that the surgery happened, the rehab happened, and the Cardinals believe he is ready to play.

The numbers

Nootbaar's career rate line from 2022 through the three seasons prior to this one — .246/.351/.426 — gives a reasonable baseline for what a healthy version of him looks like. The .234/.325/.361 over 583 plate appearances represents the deviation from that baseline, and MLB Trade Rumors attributes at least some of that deviation to the heel issues.

The rehab numbers — .233 with two home runs across 11 games — are a small sample by any measure, and MLB Trade Rumors presents them as a progress marker rather than a performance statement. Eleven games is enough to establish that a player can run the bases and take the field; it is not enough to tell you much about whether the swing is back at full capacity.

Where the club stands

The Cardinals enter Friday's series at 77-85 (.475), sitting fourth in the NL Central and 26 games back in the division. They are also eliminated from the Wild Card race, ranking seventh relative to the cut line at 11.0 games back. St. Louis has dropped four straight heading into the weekend.

That context reframes what Nootbaar's return means operationally. This is not a pennant-race reinforcement. It is a chance for a 28-year-old outfielder to log meaningful innings in the second half of a season that has already been decided in the standings, rebuild his footing — literal and figurative — and give the organization something to evaluate heading into the offseason. For a club in this position, that is not nothing.

The Reds series at Busch Stadium runs through Sunday. Friday's probable pitchers are Kyle Leahy for St. Louis against Brady Singer for Cincinnati. Saturday lines up Matthew Liberatore against Nick Lodolo, and Sunday has Michael McGreevy opposing Rhett Lowder. Three games, home field, a familiar opponent — a reasonable environment for a returning player to find his rhythm.

Is Nootbaar in the lineup Friday?

Per manager Oli Marmol's comments to reporters, the activation is set for Friday's game, which would make it his season debut. MLB Trade Rumors does not specify a batting order position or defensive assignment, only that the activation is expected to happen for the series opener.

What we don't know yet

The corresponding active roster move has not been specified per the report. Someone will need to come off the 26-man to make room, and that detail remains unresolved as of the reporting.

It is also worth noting that the rehab sample — 11 games, .233, two home runs — does not tell us much about where Nootbaar's offensive production will land once he is back in the lineup full-time. MLB Trade Rumors frames the rehab as a gradual buildup rather than a declaration of readiness at full capacity. Whether the heels hold up over a sustained stretch of games is the question that only games can answer.

MLB Trade Rumors also does not specify any usage plan, platoon arrangement, or role definition for Nootbaar going forward. Those details, if they exist, have not been reported.

What to watch

The most immediate thing to monitor is the corresponding roster move — whoever comes off the active roster to make room will tell you something about how the Cardinals are managing their depth in the final stretch of a lost season.

Beyond that, the more interesting watch is Nootbaar himself. A player returning from bilateral heel surgery, after a season in which those heels appeared to affect his performance, working his way back through a Triple-A rehab and into a major league lineup — the first few weeks of plate appearances will carry more diagnostic weight than usual. Not because the standings demand it, but because the Cardinals will want to know what they have heading into the offseason, and Nootbaar's health and production are a meaningful part of that picture.

The Cardinals' upcoming schedule — three home games against Cincinnati to close out the week — offers a low-stakes but real-game environment for that evaluation to begin.