Cardinals will pay Dexter Fowler more money than Nolan Arenado this year

The St. Louis Cardinals have dealt Dexter Fowler, and they’ll pay him more this year than they’ll pay Nolan Arenado.

There’s no doubt the St. Louis Cardinals came out nicely in the Nolan Arenado trade. They didn’t give up any of their top-tier prospects, and the Rockies even included $51 million in the deal to offset what Arenado is owed. The idea the Cardinals would have to send a bigger salary of their own back to Colorado seemed logical, but that didn’t happen.

On Thursday night, word the Cardinals were sending outfielder Dexter Fowler and cash considerations to the Los Angeles Angels came. They’ll get a player to be named later or cash considerations in the deal, so the term salary dump surfaced instantly.

Fowler was on the books for $14.5 million this year, the final year of his contract. That expiring contract made it easy to think he could be part of the Arenado deal. As it turns out, the Angels aren’t taking on much of Fowler’s salary.

The Cardinals are paying Fowler more than Arenado this year?

The Cardinals will pay $12.75 million of Fowler’s salary this year. Off the top, the Rockies are accounting for $15 million of Arenado’s $35 million salary for 2021. He has retained his opt-out after the 2021 season, and a second opt-out was added after 2022. If he opts out after this year, the Rockies would cover the remaining $20 million immediately. Otherwise, that $20 million will defer to the remaining years of the contract if he doesn’t opt out either year. Ultimately, either right away or eventually, Colorado will be paying all of Arenado’s 2021 salary as part of the $51 million they’ll dole out.

The Cardinals are indeed going to pay Fowler more not to play for them than they’ll pay Arenado to play for them this year. But when the latter amount is going to effectively be zero from their fleecing of the Rockies, it’s remarkable and notable all at once.