Despite the St. Louis Cardinals stating that a power-hitting righty outfielder is on their offseason wishlist, fans have heard little to nothing about how the people in charge feel about the incumbent outfield. As of now, the Cardinals seem to have Victor Scott II and Jordan Walker written in pen for center and right field, respectively.

With the heartbreaking trade of Willson Contreras, Alec Burleson moves from left to first base, leaving a glaring hole in the grass. My guess is that the team expects Lars Nootbaar, who is once again recovering from injury, to be healthy enough to at least hold onto that spot in Spring Training. That confidence frightens me, however, as Noot underwent surgery on both heels and the procedure has apparently been done just two other times for professional athletes. The results of those surgeries were inconclusive, as Yasiel Puig fell off a horse and sustained additional injuries and NBA player John Wall tore his Achilles’ during rehab. Add on that there have not been any updates, good or bad, on Noot’s progress besides Chaim Bloom saying they will not put a timeline on his recovery, and left field looks scarier than the Cardinals are letting on.

While the Cardinals underperformed across the board last season, the outfield was especially brutal. By measure of fWAR, St. Louis outfielders finished 26th in the league and was an even worse 28th with an 81 wRC+. That fWAR number was “inflated” by center fielder Victor Scott II putting up a 1.7 total that was carried massively by his outstanding defense. In total, the Cardinals outfield put up a 1.4 fWAR and are expected to return everyone from that group who had meaningful playing time last year.

Those that have followed me here or on Twitter know that my future expectations for the defensive wizard Victor Scott II are not glowing. While I was inspired by his .271 batting average, two homers, and 10 stolen bases through April, that was pretty much the extent of his season’s success. After the All-Star break, VSII battled through some injuries and totaled just 117 at-bats with poor results, hitting just one homer, driving in six, and stealing just 10 bases. Of course, offense is not Scott’s primary focus, but he has to improve across the board with the bat if he is to grow into the exciting prospect we saw coming up through the minors when he hit over .300 and stole 94 bases. I will give VSII some grace, though, as his promotion to the majors in 2024 was rushed due to a late spring injury to Dylan Carlson, but I still hope to see a massive step forward in the batter’s box this season.

After trying to avoid this discussion, Jordan Walker figures to be the everyday right fielder, a move that I think makes the most sense for the current state of the Cardinals. Another prospect who may have been brought up too soon, Walker showed his solid hitting ability right away before the league figured him out and he was unable to adjust to the major league quality pitching. Those struggles hit a new low in 2025 as Walker finished as the second-worst outfielder in all of baseball by FanGraphs’ offensive value measure. Unlike VSII, Walker could not be helped by his defense, as the converted outfielder’s defense measured in the bottom 15% of the league leading to Walker totaling an MLB outfielder-low -1.3 fWAR. The big righty was painful to watch at times, seeing his strikeout rate skyrocket to an abysmal 31.8%, but the second-half numbers showed some level of improvement. His plate discipline improved to the point where he was able to put up a better, but still bad 71 wRC+ after the break. Walker picked up a little more power, raising his OPS from .562 to .604 and stole seven bases. While he is still just 23-years-old, the Cardinals management of Walker’s playing time leaves him with just one minor league option remaining. With his prospect pedigree and apparent positive reports thus far in the offseason, the Cardinals obviously hope for him to become the middle-of-the-order presence the team needs to move the rebuild along.

That brings us to left field. Without hearing otherwise, I guess we can pencil in Lars Nootbaar for left. Maybe no news is good news! If he is fully healthy, 2026 could be yet another “make or break” year for Noot as many, including myself, were hyped up to see what he was capable of last year thanks to his peripheral stats and offseason workout videos. We got teased for another season, though, as Noot continues to have a decent looking Baseball Savant page but the overall numbers were a regression from the 2024 campaign. He was mostly healthy, playing in a career-high 135 games, despite missing time with some injuries and likely played some of those games at less than 100% health. Of course, the heel injuries could give some explanation to his performance as Nootbaar saw his fielding value plummet and his sprint speed drop almost a full foot per second since 2023. If the rehab is progressing well and Noot is fully healthy for the regular season, the Cardinals are all but guaranteed to have him be the everyday left fielder and put his offseason work into regular season performance.

The desired righty outfielder could be wanted as a supplement for Nootbaar, but the organization has been careful about the way they have approached the free agent rumors. Chaim Bloom mentioned that a bat was on his wishlist, but he stopped before saying that player would get meaningful playing time in the form of a platoon or even mention a specific position. The ability to play center is a plus, I would assume, but it would make more sense to me to find someone who can handle left field on an everyday basis if Nootbaar is unable to bounce back. The 40-man roster includes lefty Bryan Torres and righty Joshua Baez, but those are two more unproven players with Torres being 28-years-old with 10 years of minor league time and Baez not yet moving above Double-A after a great rebound year last season.

I know the main priority for the St. Louis Cardinals this season does not center around winning, but go ahead and call me selfish for wanting to see quality players on the biggest stage, regardless of the record. My biggest concern with the outfield is similar to that of first base, when I called Alec Burleson the future of the position and then poof, Contreras was gone. Behind the MLB-ready players, the highest-rated player who can play outfield on MLB.com’s top 30 prospects is 2025 draft pick Ryan Mitchell, who has a projected MLB debut of 2029. Baez is right behind him at #13 and is coming off the best year of his career. I assume Baez will get a longer look in Spring Training this year, but the odds have to be him starting and spending most of the season in Memphis.

I hate to call it inactivity, because Chaim Bloom has done more this offseason than we are used to, but Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan remaining in St. Louis into the new year is a little disheartening to me. There is still a little more than a month before Spring Training, but with the World Baseball Classic interrupting two weeks of that practice period, it would be smart, in my opinion, if Bloom makes his decision before players report to Jupiter so the coaching staff can have a clear evaluation plan moving forward. Since Bloom has been targeting pitching in his returns thus far, I would love for him to shift that focus into higher profile outfield or first base prospects who can create some excitement, and some depth, at those positions if things go even further south.