5 Cardinals who could become first-time All-Stars in 2025

OF Lars Nootbaar

When it comes to name recognition and star power, only one other Cardinal can rival Lars Nootbaar, and that's Nolan Arenado. Nootbaar is a legitimate international name given his Japanese heritage and his appearance for Samurai Japan during the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Cardinal fans knew who Lars Nootbaar was at the time, but his showing on the global stage caused his recognition to grow exponentially in just a few brief months.

The popularity is there for the Cardinals' left fielder, and he's backed that up with his play so far.

Noot is slashing .281/.410/.422 this year with two home runs, seven runs batted in, and two stolen bases. His 139 OPS+ is the best of his young career. Nootbaar posted a 1.022 OPS through his first eight games, and he's come back down to earth ever so slightly since then. However, he's still been one of the game's best all-around players early on.

Among all National League players, Nootbaar is tied for the 19th-most fWAR (0.6) in baseball. He's first in fWAR among left fielders with a total of 0.7. The next closest left fielder, Jackson Chourio, sits at 0.4 fWAR.

Lars Nootbaar is also known as a "Statcast darling." That is, his Baseball Savant page is filled with red metrics. The only metric where he ranks below average is barrel percentage (7.7%), and he's just shy of being average. He's in the 47th percentile in this metric.

Lars Nootbaar's excellent start to the season paired with his international fame should bode well for him attending his first All-Star Game. Fans throughout Japan are familiar with Lars Nootbaar. Should they turn out to vote for the 27-year-old outfielder, he'll almost certainly get enough votes to play for the National League.