What are the Diamondbacks getting in Lars Nootbaar?

PHOENIX — A lot of the talk after the trade deadline on Monday surrounded what the Arizona Diamondbacks did not get. But as the front office reflects on what went down, the club is working in Lars Nootbaar, a player with a positive clubhouse reputation and who may not have hit his stride yet this season.

“When we traded for him, Nolan (Arenado) marched into my office and said this is a really good baseball player and a great teammate,” manager Torey Lovullo said, as Arenado played with Nootbaar from 2021-25 in St. Louis.

Yes, he is a left-handed bat to help the offense against right-handed pitching. That is the gist of his addition.

Nootbaar is confident his best baseball this season is yet to come and for multiple reasons, including his distance from offseason surgery on both heels. He is also a change-of-scenery candidate who possesses many traits the Diamondbacks look for from their hitters.

He went 0-for-2 in his D-backs debut on Tuesday with a pair of walks.

So, let’s review what the Diamondbacks saw in Nootbaar, how he imagines himself fitting in and where he will play:

Where is Lars Nootbaar going to play for the Diamondbacks?

Nootbaar has experience at all three outfield spots, but the Diamondbacks have a plan to ease him in at left field. He started at designated hitter on Tuesday.

“He’s gonna play against righties and either DH or play left field until he gets some footing,” Lovullo said. “I know he’s played center field, there’s an option there at some point. I want him to get comfortable and get into Dave McKay’s program. … I explained to him that we pinch hit here, so when he starts or when he doesn’t start, he’s gonna play a lot.”

The Diamondbacks will have a puzzle to solve when they get outfielders Jordan Lawlar and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. off the injured list, as there will be a surplus.

Nootbaar and Max Kepler (along with Corbin Carroll perennially in right field) represent the left-handed options, while Arizona has depth when it comes to righties.

“We don’t have multiple left-handed hitters, DH-type guys that can come back into the mix,” general manager Mike Hazen told Arizona Sports. “Gurriel’s right-handed, Lawlar’s right-handed, (Tim) Tawa’s right-handed, (Tommy) Troy’s right-handed, (Ryan) Waldschmidt’s right-handed, so the left side of it, we have plenty of space to figure out how to get those guys in.”

Side note: Isn’t it wild how quickly the Diamondbacks went from having way too many left-handed outfielders to way too many right-handed outfielders? The 2023 team had Carroll, Alek Thomas, Jake McCarthy, Dominic Canzone and Dominic Fletcher before the trade deadline.

“It’s strange. We’ve ended up with a surplus of really good outfielders for a while, which is great. They once were all left-handed, now they’re all right-handed,” Hazen said.

What kind of hitter is Lars Nootbaar?

As Hazen put it, Nootbaar has historically fit what the Diamondbacks are looking for on offense. He is well above league average in the following areas (entering Tuesday):

• 13.1% walk rate
• 19.3% whiff rate
• 18.3% chase rate
• 92 mph exit velocity
• 51.3% hard hit rate

“He controls counts. He drives up pitch counts,” Lovullo said. “When healthy, he’s a very good baseball player and is gonna fit right into this group.”

With all of those strong metrics, the expected stats favor Nootbaar as a breakout candidate, although that has been the case with him before. He has hit for a 96 OPS+ (100 is league average) since the start of 2025 — it was 116 from 2022-24.

“I don’t think it’s any secret right that St. Louis isn’t the greatest hitter’s park, so that may factor into it, but there are other things I’m sure I’m not tapping into,” Nootbaar said. “It keeps me up at night. … Talking to Nolan, he’s told me throughout this year nothing but great things about the hitting side, the entire staff. That’s no shade at St. Louis or anything like that. But again, a new environment or even new coaches, new set of eyes, anything that could help me.”

Chase Field is a better place to hit than Busch Stadium, even if it favors right-handed batters.

Even with slightly underwhelming raw numbers, Nootbaar’s .737 OPS against righties would be among the best on the Diamondbacks. The players with a higher OPS against righties with at least 100 plate appearances this season are Geraldo Perdomo and Gabriel Moreno.

“Coming off the IL, I felt really good,” Nootbaar said. “Recently scuffled a little bit. I think that’s a little expected. … I’m not satisfied but it’s almost perfect timing of not satisfied with how it’s going, get a little scenery change and hit the ground running with a team that’s holding a Wild Card spot. It’s all team ball from here on out.”

Nootbaar’s career high for home runs is 14, as he is an on-base over power hitter — his ground ball rate is higher than average, which is something to monitor.

What was Lars Nootbaar’s injury, and how could he improve with time?

Nootbaar underwent bilateral heel surgery over the offseason to address Haglund’s deformities (bony growths on the heels).

The outfielder said he started to feel the discomfort in 2023 but it increasingly became intense. He played through pain for a while, but as he described it, he did not want to be 27 years old and need to grip the railing in order to get up the stairs.

Nootbaar said he is feeling more and more normal as he distances himself from the surgery, noting that he will probably be 100% one year out.

“I was in a wheelchair for a little bit and then I was in two boots for a little bit,” Nootbaar said. “I don’t take it for granted, being able to play with as little pain as I’ve had in a while. It’s been great and that’s only gonna get better.

“There’s still little things that I can feel, but in terms of how I felt last year and the year prior … very happy that I got that surgery.”

Lovullo said Nootbaar’s condition will be monitored, that he has been catching up but should be up to speed physically.

Getting Nootbaar for more than one season was important

Hazen said Nootbaar having another season under team control was “absolutely” a reason why the D-backs targeted him.

As the GM highlighted, Gurriel and Kepler will be free agents next year, and the young outfielders are mostly righties.

“We feel like he’s gonna be a good player next year,” Hazen said. “Having a left-handed, on-base, good hitter, that’s not really something we have coming up at the upper levels of the system. So we probably would have had to look at that this offseason. Now we don’t have to.”

Hazen said the Diamondbacks could have added both an outfielder and a first baseman, but the first base market was difficult and the priority was to add pitching.

“I think the focus and the priority on getting more pitching was something we were spending our time on,” Hazen said. “From a bat standpoint, we were focused, obviously, on getting Lars.”

Lars Nootbaar said Diamondbacks were ‘perfect’ fit

(Photo by Joe Puetz/Getty Images)

Nootbaar had already heard a lot about the Diamondbacks from Arenado.

The two met up for dinner in both St. Louis and the Valley during Diamondbacks-Cardinals series this year, and Arenado told his friend about the transition his new team. Nootbaar said they talk a lot, so he had an idea of what he was coming into.

“I’m not gonna lie, having Nolan here helps,” Nootbaar said. “Just going to a new place, new organization for the first time for me. Having somebody here that I’m very familiar with and comfortable with, that helps. … I just think playing in this ballpark, playing with these guys, I just think it’s a perfect fit for me in terms of play style and everything.”

Nootbaar is a Southern California native who watched a lot of NL West baseball growing up (just don’t ask him which team he grew up rooting for).

Makeup a factor in making the trade

Lovullo met with Nootbaar in his office on Tuesday and asked his new outfielder something rather specific.

“The first thing I wanted to find out about is how in the world did you play for Team Japan in the WBC?” Lovullo said.

Nootbaar represented Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, winning the title while representing the birth country of his mother.

Lovullo said he learned about Nootbaar through this story.

“He drops in all of these really good nuggets in this conversation,” Lovullo said. “He is telling me a story about what it means for him to play on a team and help them win baseball games and he’s just giving me information … validating everything I’ve heard about him.”

Lovullo has connections with the St. Louis coaching staff who vouched for him. He did not specify who, but former Diamondback Daniel Descalso is the bench coach, former D-backs minor league pitching coordinator Kyle Driscoll is an assistant pitching coach and former Arizona assistant hitting coordinator Casey Chenoweth is the assistant hitting coach.

In sum, Nootbaar is not a perfect player, nor is he having an amazing season. He came at a tall price of pitching prospects Daniel Eagen and Sandro Santana. But the Diamondbacks needed help against specific matchups, which is where he is expected to contribute. The makeup checked out to suggest that he will fit into the clubhouse, while his improving health status creates optimism that he will play freer with less discomfort.

The Diamondbacks’ season doesn’t rest on his shoulders, but the cost and lack of another move will add a spotlight on him to at least perform what he was brought in to do.

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