Cardinals Announce Lars Nootbaar, Hunter Dobbins Updates

The St. Louis Cardinals already have some recoveries to monitor.

Jun 20, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Hunter Dobbins (73) throws against the San Francisco Giants in the fourth inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images | Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

The St. Louis Cardinals kicked off Spring Training officially on Thursday and it didn't take long for the team to give injury updates.

Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom spoke to the media and specifically had updates on new starting pitcher Hunter Dobbins and outfielder Lars Nootbaar.

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"Hunter is doing well," Bloom said. "Arm-wise, he's right on track. It's just because of the fact that [his injury] was an ACL, there's a progression there that we need to build out. So he's doing everything off the mound but he's not doing any kind of uncontrolled agility-type stuff. He's at a point mid-next week after we help him build out a progression for him and then we'll know more about timetable once we do that."

The Cardinals gave updates

Aug 31, 2025; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar (21) high fives teammates after scoring on a sacrifice fly out hit by designated hitter Ivan Herrera (not pictured) in the third inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images | Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

Bloom was also asked whether Nootbaar has been ruled out for Opening Day.

"We have not made that determination yet," Bloom said. "He's not going to be ready to play games when games start here [in Spring Training]. But beyond that we don't really have a calendar built out. Once he has been here for a couple of weeks, we'll have a better idea of what that looks like. He's doing well. I think the important thing is making sure the progression is appropriate and he has enough under him not just physically, but also hitting-wise to be ready for the season. Where that will take us, we haven't figured that out yet. But we'll probably have a better idea, like I said, after a couple of weeks here."

Both of these guys are going to play roles for St. Louis at some point. Nootbaar had surgery on both of his heels this offseason and Dobbins is recovering after tearing his ACL last season as a member of the Boston Red Sox. He came over to St. Louis in the Willson Contreras deal this offseason. Hopefully, these two are able to work their way back as fast as possible.

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