Cardinals' Lars Nootbaar: Looking for pulled flyballs

Nootbaar changed his swing over the offseason in hopes of hitting more pulled flyballs, Katie Woo of The Athletic reports.

Nootbaar worked with Nolan Arenado and Arenado's brother, former minor-leaguer Jonah, extensively over the winter. He's holding his hands lower, allowing for a more vertical swing path and more freedom to stay within the ball. Woo writes that Nootbaar's biggest priority is backspin, along with higher exit velocities and barrel rates as well as lower groundball rates. While Nootbaar's plate discipline remained excellent in 2023, his quality of contact, flyball rate and pull rate all regressed. The goal is to maintain the former while improving all of the latter aspects.