8 Cardinals who weren't traded at the deadline but could be moved this offseason

OF Lars Nootbaar

Once again, there were whispers throughout the final week leading up to the trade deadline that Lars Nootbaar could be on the market; however, the Cardinals instead opted to hold onto their corner outfielder.

According to Katie Woo of The Athletic, teams were inquiring about Lars Nootbaar (along with other players on this list) in the moments leading up to the deadline, but St. Louis has "not entertained that up to this point." It's reasonable to assume that interest will remain in Nootbaar this coming offseason.

Lars Nootbaar's calling card throughout his career has been his underlying metrics. A look at his Baseball Savant page through the years will show a lot of red in key categories such as exit velocity, expected statistics, chase rate, and other key metrics. The struggle for Nootbaar is that he has never been able to fully put those tools to practice, and he's had some injury concerns throughout his career.

Nootbaar has a career slash line of .241/.344/.416 for an OPS+ of 112. He's playing below his career norms this year in every major statistical category, and he was even removed from leadoff duties before his most recent IL stint. If the Cardinals had traded Nootbaar at the deadline, they may have been trading him at a low point.

Before the season, Lars Nootbaar was briefly mentioned as a runway player by the organization. At this point, we should know what we have in Lars Nootbaar. He's a solid corner outfielder who will often produce at a level above league average on the offensive and defensive sides of the game, but his inability to log more than 500 at bats in a season will remain.

The Cardinals certainly shopped Noot at the deadline, but the returns they received may have been underwhelming to them at the time. They could revisit these talks in the offseason, particularly if Nootbaar gets back on track in the final two months of the year. With the glut of outfielders, the Cardinals will have to trade at least one this offseason to offer enough playing time for everyone. The number of teams needing an outfielder this offseason will be large, and Chaim Bloom could capitalize on Nootbaar's (hopefully) rising value and trade him.