'Everyday center fielder' Church crashes into fence, bounces hit off bag in Cards' loss

ST. LOUIS – Oliver Marmol was a little surprised the question was being asked. Nathan Church, after all, made his 85th start of the season in center field on Saturday night in the second game of the final Busch Stadium series of 2026, and he’s taken over the position full time since Victor Scott II was optioned to Triple-A Memphis on June 8.

“He’s our everyday center fielder,” Marmol said when asked about the path forward for Church. “No one else has come close to taking that position from him, and I like the direction it’s headed.”

Church will enter the offseason with incumbency in his saddlebag and the winds of support at his back, but he met the center-field wall with force and more than a little bit of pain as he attempted to chase down Daylen Lile’s two-run home run off Michael McGreevy in the first inning. That shot gave the Nationals an early lead as they went on to take the game 8-5 in 11 innings, assuring that the home nine would drop their last series in front of their fans.

“Just trying to get better every single day,” Church said. “I look at how I played last year, even the beginning of the year, and I feel like I made some pretty good strides. But I’m not satisfied at all, especially with the team [record], but also personally. Just trying to get better and go into the offseason.”

After flashing solid defense but struggling at the plate in his brief exposure to the Majors in 2025, Church won a spot on the roster and more or less the daily role in left field to open this season with a strong spring and with opportunity which opened up as Lars Nootbaar recovered from double heel surgery. As the season wore on and Scott’s offense continued to lag, Church provided a solid alternative option to whom the team pivoted as he earned more and more responsibility.

The season was not without its low points for Church. In July, he hit just .145 with a .409 OPS, dipping his full-season OPS to .617 at the conclusion of a home series against the Cubs on July 30. The next day, with the Cardinals in Toronto, he tallied two hits and stole a base. His trajectory has pointed more or less true north ever since. Saturday’s multi-hit effort, including a second-inning single and a ninth-inning double which fortuitously rebounded off the second-base bag into an empty spot in left field.

In deciding to commit to Church as an everyday presence in lieu of Scott, the Cardinals were doing so with the knowledge that they would likely be sacrificing a small amount on the defensive side of the ball. That is more a credit to Scott’s superlative speed and pedigree than it is a knock on Church, but Church also performed strongly enough over a representative sample that the Cardinals were able to both trust his performance and have confidence that their coaching process could help him improve in the areas where they felt he lacked.

“He's going to continue to improve out there, but I think he's done a nice job in center field,” Marmol said. “If you're just looking at the numbers, then you'll see certain times he's gotten dinged with just coming and getting the ball, and it scoots past, that type of stuff, which is just more careless and lack of focus than skill, which is easy to correct.”

“I feel like I haven't really done, like, a super great job playing defense in center,” Church acknowledged. “The more I can just lay my body out and try and make a good play for the pitchers and for the team is the only thing I can do to try and get better.”

Among rookies who have played at least 50% of their games in center, Church’s 50 RBIs trail only the 54 of White Sox All-Star Tristan Peters. His 10 homers trail only Peters and Henry Bolte of the Athletics, and the last Cardinals rookie center fielder to tally at least 10 homers, 50 RBIs and 10 steals in a season was Rookie of the Year Wally Moon in 1954.

The Cardinals’ 11th round draft pick in the 2022 MLB Draft may have arrived without a great deal of prospect pedigree or overwrought expectations, but he has certainly maximized his opportunities. In the span of a season and a fraction more, he’s gone from an unexpected depth piece to a starting big league outfielder. That does not happen by accident.

Lile’s home run left Church with an aching hip hours later, and a comment to McGreevy in the clubhouse after the game that he felt like he should’ve caught the ball. McGreevy, displeased with his pitch selection, laughed him off, bewildered that it would even be considered possible.

“That’s how I try and go about it,” Church said. “Go and get the ball until you can’t.”