St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said that trading Nolan Arenado is still priority for the Cardinals. But he affirmed that the team is in a holding pattern with Arenado. This is due to the free-agent market, where fellow third-baseman Alex Bregman is still unsigned.
Mozeliak added that he is “hopeful” that a trade will go through but described the chances of Arenado being dealt as a “flip of the coin.’’ The Cardinals want to add to their bullpen and could buy a right-handed bat. But he said they will not act until they resolve Arenado’s future.
The Cardinals believed they had a deal to sell Arenado to the Houston Astros in mid-December. However, he exercised his full no-trade clause to block the trade. Houston eventually signed Christian Walker, locking in Isaac Parders as their starting third baseman and taking themselves out of the Arenado deal.
Katie Woo of the Athletic reports that the New York Yankees were also one of the teams to ask about Arenado in December. But they pulled due to St. Louis’ demands. The Cardinals refused to pay a large portion of his remaining contract. That is three years, $74 million ($10 million which the Colorado Rockies will pay) just to move him.
Woo reports that as of January 7th, there had been “next to no traction in [Arenado] trade talks’’ since St. Louis’ deal with Houston fell apart. And Arenado’s limited option of teams to join is hampering the Cardinals ability to trade him.
Multiple MLB sources told Woo that they thought the Boston Red Sox were Arenado’s last resort of being traded before the beginning of the 2025 campaign. Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam reported on January 5th that Boston is a “preferred destination – if not the preferred destination’’ for Arenado. However, their interest in him is becoming murky. The Red Sox have also shown interest in Bregman, including the Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, and Chicago Cubs.
