Cardinals Turn Lars Nootbaar Into Two Pitching Prospects for the Future

THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Cardinals Turn Lars Nootbaar Into Two Pitching Prospects for the Future
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

Lars Nootbaar is no longer a St. Louis Cardinal.

That part stings.

Nootbaar was easy to root for. He brought energy, patience at the plate, defensive versatility and one of the more recognizable fan connections on the roster. For several years, he felt like one of those players who was simply part of the fabric of the club.

But deadlines do not deal in sentiment.

The Cardinals traded Nootbaar to the Arizona Diamondbacks, turning one more year of control and an injury-interrupted 2026 season into two pitching prospects and a player to be named later.

Coming back to St. Louis are right-hander Daniel Eagen and left-hander Sandro Santana.

That is the part worth studying.

Because this deal is not just about saying goodbye to Nootbaar. It is about what Chaim Bloom is trying to build. The Cardinals have been adding pitching depth aggressively, and this trade continues that pattern. After moving Dustin May and JoJo Romero to Milwaukee for Alexander Frías and Josiah Ragsdale, St. Louis followed by turning Nootbaar into two more arms.

There is a clear direction here.

The Cardinals are trying to restock the system with pitching, athletic upside and controllable talent.

Eagen is the headliner.

The 23-year-old right-hander was one of Arizona’s better pitching prospects, ranking near the top of the Diamondbacks’ system before the deal. He is 6-foot-4, 205 pounds, a 2024 third-round pick out of Presbyterian, and he brings the kind of pitch mix that makes him more interesting than his surface ERA might suggest.

That is important, because the surface numbers are not pretty.

Eagen’s 2026 ERA at Double-A Amarillo sits over 5.00. In a vacuum, that number will scare off casual prospect watchers. It should not be ignored, but it also should not be the entire evaluation.

The Texas League can be a brutal environment for pitchers, and Amarillo is not exactly a soft landing spot. More importantly, Eagen has continued to miss bats. He has struck out 102 hitters in 81.1 innings this season, and that is the number that should get the Cardinals’ attention.

The Cardinals did not acquire him because he had a shiny ERA.

They acquired him because there is real stuff.

Eagen’s fastball plays in the mid-90s with carry. His curveball is viewed as the best pitch in the arsenal, and the slider gives him another breaking-ball weapon. He has also worked in a splitter, giving him a fourth pitch that could help determine whether he sticks as a starter.

That is the key question.

Starter or reliever?

Right now, Eagen still has enough of a mix to be developed as a starting pitcher. He has size, multiple pitches and a track record of strikeouts. The Cardinals should give him every chance to remain in that role. But if the command does not sharpen enough, the fallback path is not hard to see.

A mid-90s fastball, plus breaking ball and swing-and-miss profile can absolutely play in the bullpen.

That gives Eagen more than one way to reach St. Louis.

That matters.

The Cardinals need starting pitching, but they also need power arms. Eagen gives them both possibilities. He is not a finished product. He is not a guaranteed rotation piece. But he is the kind of arm worth betting on, especially in a system that needs more upper-level pitching with strikeout ability.

This is not a lottery-ticket arm from the lowest levels.

Eagen has already reached Double-A. His ETA is close enough to matter. With refinement, he could push himself into the Cardinals’ pitching picture in 2027.

For a Nootbaar trade, that is a real return.

Then there is Sandro Santana.

Santana is the less familiar name, but he may end up being the sneaky part of the deal.

The 21-year-old left-hander was not carrying the same prospect weight as Eagen coming into the season, but his 2026 performance changed that. He opened the year at High-A Hillsboro and pitched well, posting a 2.93 ERA over 30.2 innings. Then he moved to Double-A Amarillo and was even better, allowing just one earned run over 15.2 innings.

That is how a relief prospect gets noticed.

Santana does not bring the same public scouting buzz as Eagen, but left-handed relief arms who perform in the upper minors have value. The Cardinals have seen how quickly bullpen depth can disappear. Injuries, inconsistency and roster churn can turn a healthy bullpen into a weekly problem.

Santana gives them another left-handed option to develop.

And he is not years away.

Like Eagen, Santana has already reached Double-A. That puts him closer to the major league radar than some lower-level prospect acquired purely on projection. His path is likely more direct. He does not need to be developed as a starter. He needs to keep getting outs, keep attacking hitters and prove the Double-A success is not a small-sample mirage.

If he does that, he could become a real bullpen piece.

That is the value in this kind of trade.

The Cardinals did not get one clean, obvious future star. That was never likely for Nootbaar, especially given his injury history and uneven offensive production this season. What they got was something more realistic and still useful: two arms with different paths to the big leagues.

Eagen gives them upside.

Santana gives them proximity.

Eagen gives them a chance at a starter or power multi-inning arm.

Santana gives them a left-handed bullpen candidate.

Together, they make the trade easier to understand.

This is also where the player to be named later matters. We do not know that final piece yet, so the trade cannot be fully graded. The PTBNL may be nothing more than organizational depth. It could also become a young lottery ticket. Until that name is known, the return is incomplete.

But the two known pieces already give the Cardinals something they needed.

More pitching.

That has been the theme of this deadline.

The Cardinals did not simply move veterans to move them. They targeted prospect capital, and especially arms. That does not make every deal an automatic win, but it does show a front office trying to reshape the organization’s inventory.

For years, the Cardinals have lacked enough pitching depth to cover injuries, underperformance and developmental misses. That problem does not get fixed with one trade. It gets fixed by volume, scouting and development.

Eagen and Santana are part of that volume.

The Cardinals are taking chances on traits. Strikeouts. Pitch shape. Left-handed relief potential. Upper-level experience. Multiple paths to the majors.

That is how organizations build better pitching depth.

For Nootbaar, this is a tough goodbye. He was a fan favorite, and those players are never easy to move. But this was also the kind of decision a front office has to make when the roster needs to be rebalanced.

Nootbaar had value because he was not a rental.

The Cardinals turned that value into two arms and another piece still to come.

That does not mean fans have to love the trade emotionally.

But from a baseball standpoint, it makes sense.

The Cardinals had outfield decisions coming. Jordan Walker remains part of the core. Joshua Báez is pushing toward St. Louis. Nathan Church and Victor Scott II are still in the broader picture. There were only so many at-bats available, and Nootbaar’s long-term place was no longer as secure as it once seemed.

So Bloom moved him while there was still value to capture.

Now the responsibility shifts to player development.

Getting Eagen is one thing.

Refining him is another.

Getting Santana is one thing.

Turning him into a trusted left-handed bullpen piece is another.

That is where this deal will ultimately be judged.

Not today.

Not by prospect rankings alone.

Not by the emotional sting of losing Nootbaar.

This trade will be judged by whether Eagen’s swing-and-miss stuff becomes major league innings and whether Santana’s breakout carries over in the Cardinals’ system.

If one of them becomes a useful big league arm, the deal can work.

If Eagen becomes a starter, it may look even better.

If Santana becomes a left-handed reliever who helps the Cardinals’ bullpen in 2027, that matters too.

The Cardinals did not win the trade because they acquired two names.

They win the trade only if they develop the arms.

That is the real challenge.

For now, the return is clear enough.

Daniel Eagen is the upside arm.

Sandro Santana is the left-handed bullpen bet.

The player to be named later is still to come.

And Lars Nootbaar leaves St. Louis as a popular player who gave the Cardinals real moments, real energy and, at the end, real trade value.

That is not a bad legacy.

It is just the hard business of baseball.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
Preserving the Past, Promoting the Present, and Projecting the Future.

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Photo Credit: Lars Nootbaar, St. Louis Cardinals | AP Photo/Jeff Roberson