Lars Nootbaar's emotional farewell to Cardinals fans will bring a tear to your eye

St. Louis Cardinals fans expected an eventful trade deadline and Chaim Bloom waited until the last hour to make good on that promise. In the final stretch, Lars Nootbaar was sent to Arizona to reunite with buddy Nolan Arenado as the rebuild continues in St. Louis. On his way out of Yankee Stadium, Noot caught up with Cardinals social media to say his goodbye to Cardinal Nation.

It is always a bummer to see a fan-favorite get traded away from a non-competitive team, even if the players coming back to St. Louis grade high for the future. As much as it hurt seeing Nootbaar give hugs to his coaches and teammates on the field, hearing his short goodbye message brought out plenty of emotion from him and from the fans. The emotional send off was a bittersweet ending to a respectable Cardinals tenure.

Lars Nootbaar salutes Cardinals fans in his thank you for support and fun in his St. Louis career

To make the trade pill easier to swallow, at least Nootbaar will be reuniting with Arenado and join the Diamondbacks in the thick of a playoff race. The outfielder is surely thankful for that opportunity, but his message made it clear that he would have loved to spend his entire career playing in St. Louis. In the video, it is clear that Noot had been emotional prior to the recording, but by the end of the minute long clip, he choked out his final thank you to the fans.

Over his six years with the Cardinals, Noot easily became a player to root for coming in as an eighth-round pick and letting his infectious personality take over. While he may have never reached the potential that his underlying metrics showed, Nootbaar did everything a fan wants their players to do. He was an international icon during the World Baseball Classic and brought a signature pepper grinder celebration to the majors and became the class clown in front of stoic veterans Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. With those two gone, Noot became the clubhouse leader for the next generation of Cardinals and he will have to pass that baton down to the next person.

The players coming back to St. Louis from the Diamondbacks are exciting in their own right, but the dugout will sure miss Noot's presence. Alec Burleson is the remaining veteran in the lineup at the ripe old age of 27 and Andre Pallante now becomes the organization's longest-tenured player. How the clubhouse competes over the last two months will be a glimpse towards the future, as many of the remaining pieces in St. Louis hope to be part of the next competitive Cardinals team.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are done playing the Cardinals this year, so fans will have to wait for the 2027 season to give Lars Nootbaar a warm welcome back. Noot's standing ovation will not come until July 6th, when the D'Backs come to St. Louis for the first time.

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