Cardinals' Oliver Marmol Sends Message About Lars Nootbaar

If you have been following the St. Louis Cardinals over the last few months, you've likely heard about all of the negatives.

St. Louis was in trade rumors all offseason and that has carried over to some pretty wild speculation this season. The Cardinals haven't gotten off to the start they have wanted and currently have a 14-18 record. There's plenty of time to turn things around, but there's just been a lot of negative.

But, let's talk about something else now. What about some positive?

One guy who has been great so far this season is outfielder Lars Noobaar. He's appeared in 31 games so far this season and is slashing .254/.389/.424 with five homers, 18 RBIs, three stolen bases, 25 walks, five doubles, and 21 runs scored. He's already tallied 1.4 wins above replacement. In comparison, he totaled 1.5 wins above replacement for the entire 2024 season in 109 games played.

Nootbaar has been the engine that has gotten the team's offense moving this season and manager Oliver Marmol had nothing but praise for him on Thursday, as transcribed by MLB.com's John Denton.

"(Lars Nootbaar is) going to take the same at-bat, regardless of if he's leading off or hitting third,” Marmol said as transcribed by Denton. "But (with Nootbaar leading off), we start (almost) every game with somebody on. I mean, it feels that way. You just know that you're going to have a super professional at-bat to start every game...

"He could be a very interesting, impactful player because of the combination of his skill set. You look under the hood and all of it is there, right? He hits the ball hard, he can use the whole field, he picks his spots to drive the baseball out of the park, he does not chase, and then he has a demeanor that will allow him to be very consistent."

He's starting to put it all together and Cardinals fans can be excited about him at the very least.