The St. Louis Cardinals, while they’re in a postseason spot right now atop the NL Wild Card field, are a team that might still look to sell some players to continue their rebuild.
They traded Brendan Donovan, Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras, and Sonny Gray before the season, and now, Dustin May and JoJo Romero might be on the move too. But a beloved outfielder is another name to watch in the trade market.
According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Cardinals’ move that would “make the most sense” with beloved outfielder Lars Nootbaar is, unfortunately, a move similar to those made this past offseason, as trading Nootbaar makes sense this season.
Cardinals trade of Lars Nootbaar ‘makes the most sense’
“Nootbaar, 28, is under control for only one year after this one, leaving the Cardinals with three choices: Extend him; Keep him until he reaches free agency; Trade him, most likely for young pitching,” Rosnethal writes. “The latter option might make the most sense…”
While the Cardinals might, in an ideal world, keep Nootbaar and make him a mainstay of the roster, trading him now to further continue their rebuild might make the most sense.
He’s only under control for one more season, and if Chaim Bloom could get a team to make a solid offer, then a trade would be a better use of Nootbaar than keeping him for the rest of 2026 and 2027.
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Nootbaar has a .707 OPS and 101 OSP+ this season in 22 plate appearances, while last season he had a .686 OPS and a 95 OPS+, much lower than the .774 OPS and 115 OPS+ marks the previous four seasons combined.
Since Nootbaar isn’t performing well enough to justify keeping him on the roster long-term, Bloom finding a trade partner makes al ot of sense.
It would be a shame to trade him, but for the future of the franchise, which looks very promising based on the outcome of the 2026 season thus far, parting with Nootbaar now, as Rosnethal put it, “makes the most sense.”