Cardinals ready to trade Nolan Arenado as potential Yankees option emerges
The Cardinals are ready to move on from Nolan Arenado, presenting the Yankees with a potential trade solution at third base as they chart a new path after Juan Soto left for the Mets.
Arenado, 33, is an eight-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner but is coming off a down 2024 season offensively in which he hit .272 with a .719 OPS — his lowest since his rookie season — 16 home runs and 71 RBIs in 152 games.
He is reportedly owed $74 million over the next three years and has a full no-trade clause.
“[Having Arenado remain a Cardinal] is a possibility, but I’m not sure that puts us where we want to be,” Cardinals president John Mozeliak told reporters Monday at the MLB winter meetings, per ESPN. “From a financial standpoint of trying to move our payroll, there are certainly other ways to do that, but [dealing Arenado] would be a big help. It’s financial, but it also creates a runway for someone else.”
“These decisions are not something we ever take lightly,” Mozeliak added.
“[Arenado] is not demanding a trade. He’s not telling me I have to do it, but I think in the best interest of both sides, I’d like to try to find him someplace to land.”
Arenado, who turns 34 in April, spent his first eight MLB seasons with the Rockies, and he finished in the top eight in the NL MVP voting five years in a row from 2015-19, a span in which he hit 199 home runs with 621 RBIs.
He signed an eight-year, $260 million contract extension with Colorado before the 2019 season, after which he would have been a free agent.
Two years later, the Rockies traded Arenado to St. Louis, where he proved he was more than just a product of Coors Field by hitting 64 home runs with 208 RBIs over his first two seasons.
He set career-highs with a 7.7 wins above replacement (WAR) and 151 OPS+ in 2022, finishing third in the NL MVP race.
The Yankees made a 16-year, $760 million contract offer to try to retain Soto after his one year in The Bronx, but he chose the Mets’ 15-year, $765 million offer which can jump to $805 million if they void his opt-out after the fifth year.
