2 injured players Cardinal fans shouldn't worry about and 1 that is concerning

Injuries are an aspect of the game that every team experiences. Each year, teams must handle key players getting hurt and missing periods of time. For the St. Louis Cardinals, those struggles started early this year. Before the first pitch was thrown in any regular season game this year, the Cardinals had Tommy Edman, Lars Nootbaar, Keynan Middleton, and Sonny Gray on their injured list. Riley O'Brien and Drew Rom joined that assortment soon after.

While it is likely that each of these players will remain on the IL for Opening Day, they will all still be in attendance.

Despite several of those players' injuries being on the mend by the time the calendar turned to April, others were still mired in uncertainty. Players such as Lars Nootbaar and Sonny Gray have already started rehab assignments. Meanwhile, others are facing a less certain future.

Sonny Gray's recovery should give fans confidence.

Sonny Gray, the team's newly-inked ace, went down in a spring training start with hamstring tightness. Luckily, an MRI came back negative, and everyone associated with the Cardinals breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Gray's rehab has been going quite well. Soon after his MRI, he was able to get some tossing in. Gray's scheduled rehab start with Memphis on Wednesday, April 3rd was delayed due to weather concerns. He instead threw approximately 50 pitches in a simulated game with the team's Double-A affiliate, the Springfield Cardinals.

Sonny Gray's setback--something that was out of his control--will inhibit him from pitching during the Cardinals' first homestand. Instead, Gray will have to wait until April 12th to make a start. The Cardinals will head back west to face off against the Arizona Diamondbacks that weekend.

From the beginning of Gray's injury timeline, he has been in control. Gray requested an IL placement; he wanted to make 3 rehab starts in the minors; he desired to build back up slowly rather than rush a return and risk re-injuring his hamstring.

While he won't be able to pitch in the opening homestand, concerns about Gray's injury should be quelled. He is a competitor who knows his body. Sonny Gray will return very soon from an injury that could have been much worse; the fact that he is throwing rehab games already and will miss maybe 2-3 starts, on the whole, is reassuring.

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Lars Nootbaar should be available for the first weekend at Busch Stadium.

For a man who has been injured in some of the weirdest ways possible, Nootbaar's spring training injury is near the top of the list. The young outfielder made a diving play and ended up fracturing his ribs in the process. Nootbaar's injury came in a spring training game on March 8th.

It was almost immediately clear that Nootbaar would not be healthy for the opening day game against the Los Angeles Dodgers and his friends, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani. As spring progressed, Nootbaar's return for the home opener began to become more unsure. He was placed on the 10-day injured list on March 26th.

Noot is eligible to come off the IL on Thursday, April 4th for the home opener. According to MLB.com's John Denton, however, it is unlikely that he will be activated for that game. Nootbaar is healthy enough to play, but given the fact that he missed the final two weeks of spring training, Lars wants to get a feel for the game that he was unable to garner due to missing most of the spring circuit.

In Nootbaar's first rehab game for Memphis on Tuesday, he played 5 innings in left field while getting 3 at-bats. Nootbaar went 0-3 with a run scored and an RBI. He hit into a fielder's choice to score a run, and he eventually came all the way around to score a run in the Redbirds' 7-2 victory over the Indianapolis Indians.

Nootbaar's return will help solidify an outfield that has been decimated by injuries. Tommy Edman, Dylan Carlson, and Lars Nootbaar were projected to be 3 of the team's 4 starting outfielders next year. While Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan, Michael Siani, and Victor Scott II have been filling in admirably--particularly on the defensive side--Lars's return will strengthen the team's depth.

The hope is to see Nootbaar play opening weekend at Busch Stadium. Given his progression with the Cardinals' Triple-A affiliate Memphis Redbirds, optimism should be high for the lefty's inclusion that weekend.