Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar talks with the media Sunday at Winter Warm-up and discusses his GQ award in Japan and being present as teams courted Yoshi Yamamoto only to see him sign with the Dodgers.
He’s gone from working manual labor at an aerospace engineering company to 1 million followers on Instagram. Lars Nootbaar’s surreal rise is one of the cooler Ƶ sports stories.
A Cardinal prospect in 2020, when he worked the blue-collar job during the minor league shutdown, Nootbaar cracked the big leagues in 2021, broke out in 2022 and played in the World Baseball Classic in 2023. Succeeding alongside Shohei Ohtani on Team Japan, of course, made Nootbaar an international star. This offseason, Lars traveled to Japan to film commercials and accept an award from GQ Japan (he wore a velvet tux).
But for all the crazy changes in his life, Nootbaar still finds the most bizarre being the identity of his new best buddy.
“I get to friggin’ work out with Nolan Arenado,” Nootbaar said of his winter workout partner, Cardinals teammate and fellow Californian. “That’s where the perspective changed for me. In 2020, I was screwing stuff together. (Now) Nolan is one of my best friends in the whole world. In high school, me and my buddies would get in an argument about who’s the best third baseman. I would always have Nolan’s back. And now, that’s just my guy. Being able to see it firsthand, it’s an honor that I don’t take for granted.”
Sunday at Winter Warm-up, Nootbaar shared a discussion he had with the perennial All-Star in early 2023. Nootbaar wasn’t pleased with his own play. Arenado told him to channel it as motivation for the offseason.
“I was like, ‘For sure, but as a scrub, I’ve got a lot of things to work on,’” Nootbaar humbly said. “’But when you’re you ...’ And he’s like, ‘Bro, it never changes. Every year, you look back and think, ‘Man, I gave up that, I did this, I can get better.’ And that’s what makes him so great. And that’s what I’m chasing. Mindset never changes. You’re always chasing after the ghost.”
Sure enough, Arenado is chasing the ghost, too. It wouldn’t change his offseason intensity, but after Arenado tallied a .774 on-base plus slugging percentage in a losing campaign, “A motivated Nolan is a scary Nolan,” Nootbaar said. “He looks good. He’s working hard. He’s excited. The guy, he’s a psycho, for lack of a better term. He lives and breathes baseball. And for me, it’s inspiring.”
Nootbaar finished with a similar OPS of .784. Nootbaar channels Arenado’s intensity, integrity and grittiness. But to have a regular Arenado-like season (such as in the .800s or, dare we say, even .900s for OPS), Nootbaar needs to figure out how to channel his second halves in his first halves.
Before the All-Star break in 2023, Nootbaar had a .740 OPS. In the second half, it was .832.
Before the All-Star break in 2022, Nootbaar had a .655 OPS. In the second half, it was .846.
Asked to reflect on these disparities, Nootbaar said Sunday: “It’s tough to really put your finger on it. I think a lot of it is just the beginning parts of this season, you’re still fine-tuning yourself. You’re still trying to find yourself. And last year was the first year I was up with the team the entire year, so it’s kind of being more comfortable in my own skin. Hopefully, I’m healthy this year and I’m able to have that confidence and kind of trust my own ability.
“I think that’s a big aspect of it, that mental part of it. In the past couple of seasons, it’s kind of been a roller coaster, (then) hit rock bottom, (then) do whatever you can to come back (in the second half). But I think having that maturity and having experience now, that understanding of ups and downs — that’s part of the game. So it’s, I guess, controlling that a little bit better.”
And yeah, staying healthy is pretty important, too. He played only 117 games last year.
This offseason, Nootbaar hired what he calls a “body coach” who has the outfielder doing exercises to help make him more “flexible, pliable and durable.”
If Nootbaar can just start stronger than previous seasons, it should energize the entire Cardinals lineup. Even with the slower first half in 2023, he still made numerous positive impacts, notably with his ability to walk. His walk rate finished in the 95th percentile, per Baseball Savant. His on-base percentage for the season was .367. He seldom swung at bad pitches. And he swiped 11 bags on the season.
But he has power in his swing — we’ve seen it before, at times. He didn’t showcase it often last year.
“Working with Nolan this offseason,” he said, “obviously he’s probably the best player this century to be able to pull ball in the air successfully at efficient angles. So it’s working with him and listening to him and trying to hone that skill that he’s got down so well. That’s something I’ve been working on this offseason. ...
“(Arenado) is one of those guys that I compared him to (Michael) Jordan and Kobe (Bryant) a couple offseasons ago — he’s a worker, man.”
Nootbaar is emulating him in the offseason. Here’s thinking this is the year he most emulates Arenado in the regular season (and not just the second half).