The St. Louis Cardinals placed outfielder Lars Nootbaar on the injured list on Friday with a strained oblique. In a corresponding move, they recalled infielder José Fermín from Triple-A Memphis. Nootbaar suffered his injury on a swing he took during the late stages of Wednesday's game against the Cincinnati Reds.
Nootbaar, 26, has been one of the Cardinals most productive hitters this season. In 39 games to date, he's batted .234/.337/.404 (113 OPS+) with five home runs and three stolen bases. He'd been particularly effective in May, posting an .845 OPS with seven extra-base hits in 22 games. Nootbaar's contributions have been worth an estimated 0.8 Wins Above Replacement, according to the calculations housed at Baseball Reference.
Nootbaar's injury comes at a suboptimal time for the Cardinals. They've successfully overcome a poor start to the season by winning seven of their last eight games and 17 of their last 30. The Cardinals, now 27-27 on the year, will enter the weekend in second place in the National League Central. Alas, their immediate schedule is unfavorable: they'll play a weekend series against the Philadelphia Phillies, MLB's best squad, before taking on a Houston Astros club that has also gone 17-13 in its last 30 after a similarly miserable opening stretch. All six of those games will take place on the road.
The Cardinals did not provide a timetable on when they expect Nootbaar to return to the lineup. Baseball Prospectus' database suggests the average player misses about five weeks when diagnosed with an oblique strain. That said, oblique strains are notoriously tricky and it's possible that Nootbaar misses more (or less) time than the average bear. The Cardinals will have to wait and see.
With Nootbaar sidelined, the Cardinals would seem likely to deploy an outfield that includes Michael Siani in center and some combination of Brendan Donovan, Alec Burleson, and Dylan Carlson in the corners. Carlson, who has struggled offensively this season in an admittedly limited sample, has started in just eight of his 18 appearances to date.
It's perhaps notable that the Cardinals did not bring back former top prospect Jordan Walker, optioned earlier this year after his own slow start at the plate. Walker has hit .277/.321/.376 in 25 games at Triple-A. Shockingly, given that he has near-elite raw strength, he's yet to hit a home run in 176 combined trips to the plate. It's understandable, then, why the Cardinals may feel that he needs to do more work on his swing in the minors before he's again ready for big-league duty.
Fermín, 25, has appeared in 30 games at the big-league level dating back to last season. He's hit .227/.338/.242 (64 OPS+) in those contests. He should be deployed in a reserve capacity.
