ST. LOUIS -- It was the first strike Lars Nootbaar saw in a real baseball game following double heel surgery in the offseason, but that didn’t keep him from swinging at it.
Batting second in the Single-A Palm Beach Cardinals lineup in his long-awaited return to competitive action on Friday night, Nootbaar slugged a 1-0 pitch from Daytona Tortugas starter Kyle McCoy over the left-field wall at Roger Dean Stadium.
An opposite-field home run on his first swing of his rehab assignment seemed to echo the positivity on Nootbaar’s status that Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol had shared with reporters at Busch Stadium earlier that afternoon.
“It's been good,” Marmol said before the Cardinals hosted the Royals. “Making a lot of progress. I mean, everything's pointing toward feeling really good about [Friday].”
After Nootbaar’s first-inning blast against a left-handed starting pitcher, the 28-year-old outfielder drew a walk in his second and final plate appearance of the night before being replaced by a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the fifth inning.
The brief outing provided productive early returns on the value of Nootbaar’s surgeries to correct Haglund’s deformities in both heels.
The unique nature of that injury in a baseball context meant a conservative approach to Nootbaar’s offseason recovery and rehab program. But as Marmol outlined Friday, everything to this point has matched the blueprint in terms of how the Cardinals hoped to see Nootbaar progress.
“The progression was what we anticipated from just -- there's not a whole lot to point to of others that have gone through what he had experienced,” Marmol said. “So, we wanted to make sure we were progressing in a way that made sense. We were listening to him and his feedback and his body, and how we got through it. But we're at a spot now where he's ready, which is awesome.”
The decision to opt for the heel surgeries following the 2025 season came after Nootbaar endured career lows in OPS (.686) and slugging percentage (.361), while seeing a strikeout total in the triple digits (119) for the first time in his five-year big league career.
Ultimately, Nootbaar’s discomfort in his heels was reflected in his batting line.
“We’ve had conversations about it, even when he was going through it,” Marmol said. “That's what led to him pulling the trigger on wanting to do [the surgeries] when he did, because there was some real hindrance to his game because of it.”
Nootbaar’s OPS+ dipped below the league average line of 100 for the first time in his career last season, posting an OPS+ of 97. Nootbaar’s career OPS+ remains a stout 110, demonstrating an idea of what’s possible following the surgeries.
To that end, Marmol anticipates a more productive version of Nootbaar upon his eventual Major League return.
“I think we're going to see a better defender based on his lower half feeling up to par now,” Marmol said. “His ability to control the strike zone, his ability to drive the baseball, take an extremely professional at-bat. I think there's a lot of value being brought to the table once he's ready.”
“So as we inch closer to that, it’s exciting.”
Though Friday’s strong showing offers a tantalizing view of what the Cardinals could be welcoming back into the lineup, Nootbaar’s return is expected to be delayed beyond May 24 -- the date he’s eligible to come off the 60-day IL -- as he simulates his own version of Spring Training in the coming weeks.