Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals SIDELINE Lars Nootbaar Until End Of May! JJ Wetherholt TAKES OVER at 2nd Base
Episode Date: March 26, 2026Lars Nootbaar lands on the 60-day IL as the St. Louis Cardinals reshape their outfield plans for Opening Day 2026. J.D. Hafron explores the implications of Nootbaar’s double heel surgery and the bat...tle among Nathan Church, Thomas Saggese, and José Fermín to claim the vacant left field spot. With rookie standout JJ Wetherholt making the big-league roster, Cardinals fans have a promising new face to rally behind, and Hafron questions who will step up until Nootbaar returns. Key topics include bold MLB.com predictions—from Joshua Baez’s home run potential to the emergence of Leonardo Bernal behind the plate—and the club’s biggest unknown: can Jordan Walker finally deliver on his star promise? Hafron evaluates roster depth, pitching prospects like Matthew Liberatore and Richard Fitts, and how upcoming position battles could define St. Louis’s season. Will this young, hungry squad surpass expectations or continue to rebuild? 00:00 Nootbaar IL & Roster Moves 09:34 Bold Predictions Breakdown 18:40 Team Outlook & Unknowns Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-st-louis-cardinals/ Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/ Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonstlcardinals.supercast.com/ Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! PlayStation This episode of is brought to you by MLB The Show 26. Visit https://mlbthe.show/lockedon and use code “LOCKEDON” to unlock a pack for use in Diamond Dynasty. Pre-Order now, Available March 17th on PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. RATED E FOR EVERYONE. Turbo Tax Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. You can meet face-to-face with a real tax expert, and your documents get uploaded straight to your TurboTax app on the spot. Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to find a store near you and book your appointment today. Robinhood You’re no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. Trade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. During the tournament FanDuel is offering $300 back in Bonus Bets every day for ten days. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) #ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals #stlouiscardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Big news on the future of Lars New Bar ahead of the 2026 season opener.
This is Locked on Cardinals.
You are Locked on Cardinals.
Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.
Hey there, Cardinals, and welcome to opening day.
This episode of Locked on Cardinals brought to you by MLB, the show, 26.
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rated E for everyone.
Stay tuned later in this episode for our MLB Top 100 highlight.
On today's show, what is the biggest unknown for the team in 2026?
We've got bold predictions that were made,
and they're certainly interesting to say in the least.
We'll go through those, but we're going to start with the news that was made on
Wednesday involving Lars Dupar and JJ Weatherholt. First off, happy opening day to everybody.
Excited to have the regular season here. And we all knew the JJ Weatherhole was going to start this
season in the big leagues. Right. It was a 99.9% chance that JJ was going to be there on
opening day. You could just kind of tell the way things were going. A lot of playing time in the
spring. A lot of time at the top of the order in the spring. Ollie and everyone spoke glowingly about
him and after the Brendan Donovan trade, obviously, and it was all but a lock.
All right, it was his job to lose.
Although I also thought the same thing about Nelson Velasquez and I was wrong there,
but JJ's different, right?
He's a former number one pick.
He's soared through the minor leagues and was on the field on Wednesday,
working out with the team.
He's going to wear number 26.
And the only real question left is where in the batting order is he going to be,
which we'll find out at some point.
But before he could be on the roster, a move had to be made on the 40-man roster.
And we brought this up before.
JJ wasn't on there yet, just like Nelson Velazquez.
So someone either had to be released, put on waivers, or placed on the 60-day I-L.
And the Cardinals chose the latter with one Lars Nupar, who continues to rehab from double-heel surgery this off-season.
Now, this I-L stint is going to keep him sideline until at least the final week of May.
But on the positive side of things, it also allows him to just kind of take his time with the rehab here and the recovery and not try to rush things and try to get back to St. Louis before everything is sounded ready to go.
And in my opinion, that's kind of the best way to go about this.
Like this is not like some normal surgery that just everybody has all the time.
Double heel surgery is no joke.
and I don't know if you've watched a lot of baseball,
but you use your feet a lot in this sport.
So making sure that everything is cool there,
I'm totally fine with.
Now, I know what you're saying.
We're all thinking the same thing.
This is kind of giving you Tommy Edmund vibes from 2024.
When he had the wrist issue,
they didn't expect it to take as long as it did.
He had some issues and ultimately he never played again for the cartels.
And we were all bummed about that because we all liked Tommy Edmund.
and they end up trading him part of the Eric Fetty Tommy fan deal along with the White Sox and the Dodgers.
So he ends up going to the Dodgers where he goes crazy, goes on to win back-to-back world championships.
For what it's worth, Tommy Edmund is back on the IEL.
Once again, he's hurt for L.A. off-season ankle surgery, so hasn't played a lick in the spring.
So he's going to start the season on the IEL.
But, you know, Newpar, if I can give you a positive update about all this, is that Newpar,
is it like there hasn't been any issues there hasn't been any setbacks he's progressing just fine in fact
he had advanced to the running progression part of this whole thing he's gone through baseball activities
hitting throwing agility drills um so he's on the way he's on the end things seem to be going in the
right direction uh and barring any setbacks we we should see him by june but what do we do in the
meantime now let's be honest we're replacing large
is Newpar. We're not replacing some superstar. We're replacing a guy who's a veteran. People love the
guy on the team. Solid analytics. A lot of red on the baseball subob page. But then you go and look at
the box score and the stats, you're like, is even good? So now it's going to be up to the
combination of Nathan Church, Thomas Sejacy, and Jose Vermein, to fill the role that Newpar leaves
behind. Church can start against righties. I think I prefer to see Sejacy starting against lefties,
but everyone is going to get their opportunities.
And may the best man win the most playing time.
A little in-season competition never killed anyone, right?
So that's what's going on with the Lars Newbar side of things.
Now, as far as JJ's promotion,
not only does it get one of the new faces of the franchise up
at the big leagues for the fans to see and watch play on a daily basis.
Lord knows they're going to need something to excite the fans.
Like I, you know, we're doing a baseball podcast, right?
you and I were baseball nerds.
We're probably going to watch every game and every inning when we can.
Anyway, but like the casual fans are going to look around and go, who, what, what, what?
Who should I root for here?
J.J. Weatherholt is a name.
He's a guy that I think that they're going to be using for a lot of promotion material this year.
And the other side of it, too, is not only is it good for, you know, bringing fans back and giving them something to be excited about,
but it also makes the Cardinals eligible for that prospect promotion.
incentive, the PBI, where the Cardinals get an additional draft pick after the first round,
if Weather Holt were to factor into a major reward, like the NL Rookie of the Year award, which
I boldly predicted he would win this year. The guy hit 306 with 17 dingers, 23 stolen bases,
and a 931 OPS and 109 games last year. All right, there's nothing left to prove at AA or AAA.
He's ready. He's going to be one of the odds on favorites to win the rookie of the year award in the
National League. But there's going to be a lot of competition. You've got the Mets, Nolan McLean,
you've got Bubba Chandler and eventually Connor Griffin from the Pittsburgh Pirates,
South Stewart in Cincinnati is certainly a name to keep an eye on. So there's going to be other
people going for this award. But JJ's got as good a shot as any of them to win it. But who do
you think is going to be, this is my question for you. Who do you think is going to be the top
left fielder for the Cardinals with Newt out? That's my question. I want to hear from you.
In church, the JC Formine, do you think Nelson Velasquez gets the call up and ends up being the guy?
Let me know in the comment section below.
Up next, we're going to talk about bold predictions that were made about this team.
I did not make them, but I sure as hell can talk about them and judge them.
Are they legit bold takes or is it just wishful thinking?
We'll talk about it and discuss these things coming up next on Mockton Cardinals.
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Could have done it without you.
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So Will Leach writes for MLB.com and he likes to write about the Cardinals, which is great.
By the way, John Denton got a new job.
Congratulations to John.
It's been on the show before with us.
So used to write for MLB.com about the Cardinals, but has moved on to another job.
So good for you.
But Will Leach is a guy that writes about him.
And he ended up dropping four bold predictions for the,
26th season. So I wanted to go over them real quick and see if they are,
are these realistic predictions or are they just BS and just, you know,
letters and words on a page. So first one has to do with the rotation. Now,
here's the first one. Their top three in innings pitched will be opening day starter,
Matthew Libertor, and two guys that they got from Boston, Richard Fitz, and Hunter Dobbins.
Now, Libby isn't much of a stretch to me.
And Will admits that at the beginning as well.
He's like, Libby should be the guy.
He should be their top dude barring any injuries.
There should be no excuses for him not to get the most endings on the team.
But he'll be your opening day starter.
But neither Fitz or Dobbins are actually on the team right now.
Fitz is at Memphis.
Dobbins is on the IEL.
You know, Fitz got beat out by Andre Palante this break.
So the rationale for Will on this one, he says,
Fitzwowed many in spring training and certainly the first pitcher up.
If anyone falters or gets hurt, I'm still kind of surprised he's not in the rotation already.
Dobbins may actually be a better pitcher this year.
And while he's starting the season on the injured list, he should be ready to go soon.
Expect to see both of those guys in the rotation before you know it.
Once they get there, they're unlikely to leave.
Now, the Libby won, as I said, I agree with.
It makes perfect sense that Matthew Livertor is going to lead this club innings this year.
But I'm going to take somebody other than the other two.
I'm going to take my guy Michael McGreevy.
All right.
Michael McGreevy has been very efficient.
Okay, he's not a wow you type of pitcher,
but he's a pitcher that just kind of gets his job done.
And you look up and you're like, wait a second.
Did he just go six innings and give up like two runs and four hits
and walk away with the lead?
That happens a lot.
So very efficient since coming up,
low injury risk because he's not one of these guys who comes out
throwing 97, 98, 99.
He's a pitcher's pitcher.
You know, if you like watching a guy who's got what we would deem limited
talent as far as like VLO and stuff, like I know he's talented,
but you know what I mean?
He's none of these things that are going to wow you,
things that like, you know, people are going to show you on national shows,
be like, look at Michael McGreevy.
That's not the guy.
But I think he's going to eat a lot of innings this year.
So I'm going to take Libby and McGrath.
grievey and of fits and Dobbins.
I'll go with Dobbins because I think he's got better stuff.
I like Fitz.
There's not that I don't think he stinks or anything like that.
But I just like what other things Dobbins can bring other than, you know,
96, 97 heat.
I think he's a better pitcher from what I've seen.
So maybe I'm wrong.
I haven't seen him a lot.
They were in Boston.
But so give me Dobbins.
I'll go with Dobbins on that one.
The team's home run leader after the All-Star break, bold prediction.
Joshua Baez.
Joshua Baez.
Now that's bold for sure because as of right now,
counting Newt,
you have six guys ahead of Joshua Baez,
and there's no need to rush him to the big leagues.
He starts off in this whole thing saying that,
you know,
he planned to do this about Nelson Velazquez, actually,
but since he got optioned out,
he went on to Baez instead,
saying that MLB Pipeline's number 87 prospect,
who is on the 40 man, which is great,
and thus is an easier call-up than Belasquez.
was almost as impressive this spring as Velazquez.
And I could argue, honestly, that Baez was as good ahead or if not better than Velazquez,
actually, he just got sent down the minor league camp a lot sooner.
But he says that he's likely the only in the minors because he hasn't played a AAA.
Yeah, as far as Baez goes.
Like, he did enough where he could be on this team.
We've heard about him any home runs in the minor league camp.
You saw him in the spring breakout go yard.
if he continues to knock the ball around the way he did in in 2025, there may be no denying him.
Either way, there's no reason he shouldn't be starting in the outfield from July on.
And if he does, the homers are going to come.
Now, I think Cardal Nation would be more than happy to see this come to fruition.
I certainly do.
But his promotion also would mean that left field has been kind of a mess and didn't work out between Church and Cajee and for Mien,
we should be a real bummer because we're really hoping that that combination can handle this stuff.
Or on the other side of things, that Jordan Walker has once again failed to produce or somebody got hurt,
whether it's Walker or even Victor Scott, because if Victor Scott gets hurt at any point,
Nathan Church becomes your center fielder and that would open up the spot.
So everything that I list there, though, is none of that is good news.
Like, that's not what you want to hear.
It's not good for the players.
It's not good for the franchise.
but I am pro-Beyes for sure.
So if he ends up getting called up for whatever reason,
it's not like I'm going to be upset about it.
I'm going to enjoy watching Joshua Baez,
and I hope I get to enjoy him in a Cardinals uniform for years to come.
All right, we're going to uncover his final two bold predictions,
plus what they have is the biggest unknown for this Cardinals team in 2026.
That's coming up next on Lockdown Cardinals.
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All right, third bold prediction is another fun one from Will Leach over at MLB.com.
Your starting catcher by the end of the year will be.
I wish I had a drum roll on me right now.
I would do it for you.
Do I have a drum roll?
I do it's on pong on.
All right.
Well, you know, we'll work on that.
But it is Leonardo Bernal is the choice for Will Leach.
How about that?
The rationale, he says, it's now obvious that Bernal, who is MLB Pipeline's number 98 prospect,
has passed Jimmy Crooks on the organization's depth chart.
And when it comes time to do late season call-ups to show what's coming for the future,
Bernal should have that role nailed down.
Whoa, that's a bold one.
High five Will Leach, swinging for the fences on that one a little bit.
And it's not that, you know, Bernal isn't talented.
He is.
Of course he is.
But as he mentioned, you've got Jimmy Crux, who did hit this spring and just didn't get a whole lot of it bats, which was a little disappointing.
But maybe that's why he thinks that Bernal has passed him.
But you've got Crux.
You've got Joel Pozo still here.
But he's a bench guy.
I get it.
And then you've got Pedro Pahas.
And then you've got Yvonne Huron.
Herrera, you got to pass all these guys to get to the top catching spot.
And personally, I still want to give Crooks a chance.
But if Bernal has passed him, we're going to know pretty early on by how things are handled at this.
All right.
Like somebody's going to get the majority of the playing time.
Maybe Crooks learns to play another position.
They've been using Bernal at first base quite a few times in the spring.
So maybe that's something, which is shocking.
He'd just want a gold glove in the minor leagues is the catcher.
but Herrera not catching as much would not shock me.
I think we all know that I'm on board with Herrera playing a different position,
whether it's at first, whether it's left field or just being the DH.
I don't see any shame in that.
But that wouldn't shock me.
But they also still have a crush on Pedro Pius.
They love what the guy does defensively and behind the plate as far as calling games
and being good with the pitchers.
They love them.
They can't quit.
But maybe one or two of these guys that have,
of Bernal, maybe they get moved at the deadline.
Maybe Jimmy Crooks becomes somebody that becomes trade bait later on if
Bernal has, like Willeach says, as it has passed him on the chart there.
So we'll see.
It's a possibility, but we got a long way to go before we get to the trade deadline at the end of July.
All right.
Last bold prediction.
The Cardinals are more likely to be over 500, then lose 100 games.
I agree with that.
he's got the Cardinals finishing fourth in the division ahead of the Rets.
Like don't tell, if you have friends or family that are Reds fans,
don't tell them that because I'll freak them out.
But they're kind of losing pitchers left and right.
Hunter Green's been hurt.
Who else did they lose?
They lost Lodolo's out with blisters.
Brady Singer was dealing with blisters already.
So, I don't know.
Maybe things are not looking so good for Cincinnati.
But he does point out,
that the team finished 78 and 84 last year,
despite getting more than half their starts from Palante,
Miles Michaelis, Eric Fetty,
who I accidentally left on the lineup card last night.
Everybody pointed that out,
which was hilarious to me.
I just didn't scroll past the position players,
and there he was on the bottom.
I looked at it.
I was like, oh, man, Eric Fetty was on there.
Freak people out.
They're jump scare and stuff is what they were saying.
So funny stuff, guys, and I apologize.
But he also mentioned they got those,
subpar offensive seasons from, you know, Jordan Walker and Victor Scott,
Nolan Aronado.
He says there were a lot of dead spots on the roster last year.
And that's what he's pointing out and that they still approach 500.
And I've said it repeatedly that until the trade deadline,
the Cardinals really weren't all that bad, specifically just like into the second half.
They weren't all they good by the time the trade deadline rolled around.
But considering like what he listed there, what they were sending out.
out there each night on the mound.
Finishing where they did, I think was pretty impressive.
You know, if you don't look now, but I'm going to give some credit to Ali,
although I get yelled at for that.
So maybe we should move on fairly quickly from that.
But first half of the season, 51 and 46 with that team, with that pitching rotation.
And then the injuries started.
And guys started getting traded.
And guys started to not care all that much anymore.
And they dropped to 10 games under.
in the second half when they were letting other people play,
and that's how it ended.
This year's pitching staff, in my opinion,
has the potential to be way better than last year's.
Like, you can't tell me you see this rotation
and you don't like, oh my gosh,
way better than a Michaelis and a Feddy.
Palante's still in there,
and hopefully he's better than what he was last year
because he was a shell of himself.
But specifically those two guys,
Michaelis and Fetty, come on.
What we got in there right now
at least gives you a little more hope than that, right?
you've got a team that's young.
They're hungry.
They're eager to prove themselves.
The energy is better around the facilities.
And I think the talent has a bigger ceiling than last year.
You lose a Brennan Donovan and a Wilson Contreras.
That's going to sting.
All right.
Both of them were excellent offensive guys.
Both of them played really good defense, too.
So you're going to miss out on that.
So somebody's got to fill those voids.
But that kind of leads me to the final thing here.
which was what they listed as the biggest unknown for each team.
And the Cardinals one is based on the guy that has gone from a top prospect in baseball
to one of the biggest disappointments.
And that's Jordan Walker.
This one was actually not done by Leach, but written up by Bill Latson,
saying in 2022 Walker was the top prospect in the Cardinals org.
Four years later, the Cardinals are wondering whether he will ever reach his potential.
Walker has been inconsistent in the batters box and he had a spring training to forget.
However, he worked hard in the hitting lab at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium to correct his swing, slow things down, and be ready for any pitch coming to the plate.
For Walker to be successful, he must spread the ball all over the field.
He decided to stop thinking too much at the plate and just hit the ball.
We'll see how that goes once the season starts.
All right, something we can admit here is that Jordan Walker is a gifted athlete.
Whether you want to, you know, blame the team, blame the coaches, blame Jordan.
there's plenty of blame to go around for why he hasn't become what everyone thought he would.
There was, you know, changing his swing after they were bringing him up to the majors and they're like,
all right, we need you to start doing this instead.
Changing his swing, probably messed him up a little bit, moving him to the outfield after being an infielder.
Probably messed him up a little bit because he wasn't very good in the outfield.
So that couldn't be great for him mentally.
Calling him up too early.
Lack of willingness to listen to instruction on his side of.
of things that we've heard all of this.
There's just a lot of this and not good things that have led the Jordan Walker being
where he is in his career.
But once again, he's going to have a chance to prove everyone wrong.
All right.
We've seen him succeed.
We've seen him fail a lot.
The team has not given up on you.
The coaches have not given up on you.
Some of the fans have given up on Jordan Walker.
I'm not one of them, but a lot of fans have.
they're ready to move on swiftly.
So I just, if it's going to happen, it needs to happen this year, obviously.
I'm not saying I just want to kick him to the curb, but at the same time, eventually you've got to move on.
If you're not getting the results, you've got to move on.
And he looked better at the end of spring training.
He looked a lot more confident.
He was hitting the ball hard.
He was put one over the wall, finally, finally got one of the ABS things to go his way.
and I certainly hope that that boosted his confidence as we enter this very important year for his career in St. Louis.
So thoughts, comments, leave them down below.
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