Cardinals fans should be concerned after new update from Chaim Bloom on Lars Nootbaar

St. Louis Cardinals fans have grown tired of the constant injury woes for outfielder Lars Nootbaar, and now his status for Opening Day is already in question before the offseason has even officially begun.

Chaim Bloom joined KMOX for his weekly spot on "Sports on a Sunday Morning" and told Matt Pauley that Nootbaar's status for Opening Day was up in the air after his recent surgery. It is too early for them to tell if he'll be ready, but they won't rush his rehab and are fully aware that he may not be ready in time. Bloom does not anticipate him missing much time beyond the opening part of the season if that is the case.

Lars Nootbaar's surprise offseason surgery already has the Cardinals unsure of his status for Opening Day in 2026

The moment it was announced that Nootbaar had surgery on both of his heels to work on Haglund’s deformities, his status for 2026 immediately came into question. Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat had a piece detailing out lengthy recovery timelines for former MLB outfielder Yoenis Cespedes and former NBA star John Wall, but Bernie Miklasz of STL Sports Central and KMOX also provided some feedback from medical professionals who said the process has improved quite a bit in recent years.

Either way, Nootbaar is not going to have a clean offseason, so even if he is ready for Opening Day, this puts a major wet blanket on his trade value for the immediate future. The idea that the Cardinals should consider non-tendering Nootbaar still does not make any sense, but finding a way to get the kind of value that the Cardinals likely hoped they would in a potential trade is now hard to see.

Ultimately, this update from Bloom regarding Nootbaar makes it feel very likely that he is back in a Cardinals uniform to begin the 2026 season. The 2025 campaign was rough for sure, but I think some Cardinals fans are allowing their desire for the Nootbaar experience to end, which I understand that sentiment, with him just being a bad player.

Frankly, the Cardinals don't have enough talent right now to just let guys like Nootbaar walk for free, and for an organization that is in a rebuild and looking to add talent for the future, it makes little sense to let Nootbaar go for free when they could let him build back up his trade value during the first half of the 2026 season.

Nolan Arenado will likely be traded this offseason, and Ivan Herrera is sliding back behind the plate, so making space for the Cardinals' young bats in 2026 is not as much of an adventure as it was in 2025, even if JJ Wetherholt is on the club. And if the Cardinals do trade away any of Brendan Donovan, Nolan Gorman, Alec Burleson, or Willson Contreras as well, then it's really not hard to fit the guys who remain at all.

The Cardinals don't have a lot of young position players whose debuts are imminent outside of Wetherholt. Thomas Saggese and Nathan Church are not guys who need "runway" cleared for them, and it will be at least a bit before guys like Joshua Baez, Leonardo Bernal, Rainiel Rodriguez, and other intriguing bats in the system are ready for a shot with St. Louis. The Cardinals don't need to be in a rush to get rid of Nootbaar, even if most fans would like them to be.