Ahead of their second road trip of the young season, the Cardinals continued piecing together the team they expected to have to open their schedule.
A few days after Sonny Gray delivered five scoreless innings in his first start since a spring training injury, outfielder Lars Nootbaar joined the active roster in time to catch the charter flight to Phoenix for a weekend series against the Diamondbacks. Nootbaar was officially removed from the injured list and added Thursday afternoon.
To make room the Cardinals optioned catcher Pedro Pages to Class AAA Memphis.
The move was a two-pronged hint at health.
By downsizing the roster by one catcher, the Cardinals are suggesting they're confident Willson Contreras will be able to catch comfortably more than a week after sustaining a bone bruise on his left hand. Contreras was unable to play behind the plate for the entirety of the Cardinals' six-game home stand, and he was limited to designated hitter only after he was comfortable swinging a bat.
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The Cardinals carried three catchers just in case they had a need at the position, and Pages' move back to Triple-A suggests Contreras' readiness to receive.
Nootbaar had been scheduled to play right field and bat leadoff for Class AA Springfield on Wednesday evening. That game was rained out, and rather than have the outfielder remain with the Springfield, Missouri, affiliate the Cardinals decided to make the move to activate him. Nootbaar had been on the 10-day injured list to start the season and out of the lineup for a month after fracturing two ribs making a catch against the wall in spring training.
Within the past week, Nootbaar's return became a baseball decision and not a medical decision once his ribs had healed and he did not risk another injury.
Hopscotching from level to level trying to dodge rainstorms, Nootbaar was able to get 21 at-bats on his rehab assignment. The first handful cam entirely against left-handed pitchers or Pittsburgh's top prospect Paul Skenes. Nootbaar notified the Cardinals that this past week he felt the best with his timing, and he stung a pitch that left his bat at swifter than 110 mph. He finished the trek 4 for 21 with four walks and five strikeouts.
A key for Nootbaar, according to manager Oliver Marmol, was feeling in command of the strike zone.
“The big thing for him is controlling the strike zone and when he feels confident to not be swinging at stuff out of the zone, that’s when he feels pretty good about himself,†said Marmol in this report Wednesday from the Post-Dispatch.
This past season, Nootbaar had a career-high 503 plate appearances in the majors he hit .261/.367/.418 with 14 homers and 11 stolen bases. He has been a target for many teams trying to trade with the Cardinals because the Statcast-based metrics adore his swing and approach. He is consistently one of the most difficult hitters to strike out and also rates highly with exit velocity and hard-hit rates.Â
In 2022, he was top 10 percent in average exit velocity and 98th percentile in the majors in walk rate.
The Cardinals announced in December that they wanted Nootbaar to be their everyday left fielder and to focus on that position. They could give him a run in center field or right field, if needed. The Cardinals also see him as a left-handed bat who could help break up the right-handed pillars at the top of the lineup. It's possible he'll slide into the No. 3 spot of the lineup.
Pages, 25, is one of the Cardinals' top catching prospects and is viewed by evaluators as one of the best defensive catchers in the minors. He received one at-bat during his brief callup as protection during Contreras' recovery from being hit by a pitch.
The Cardinals go west for a second time this month to open a three-game series in Arizona and then make what could be their final visit to Oakland to face the Athletics in a three-game series next week.