3 Nolan Arenado backup plans Astros are desperate for after failed trade

As the Houston Astros clearly looked to turn the page, Nolan Arenado just set the unbound book aflame. The Cardinals third baseman exercised his no-trade clause on Wednesday to block a deal that would've sent him to Houston and surely put Alex Bregman on one of the other 29 teams for the 2025 season and beyond. But in the case of the Astros specifically, the trade being blocked only adds to their desperation.

Dana Brown and the Houston front office are currently trying to skate a thin line between still contending but also not spending big. That's why they traded Kyle Tucker ahead of his final year of club control, it's why guys like Framber Valdez have also popped up in trade rumors, and it's why they were looking to have St. Louis take on $15-20 million of Arenado's salary in the blocked trade.

But with Arenado now seemingly off the table, the Astros now have to pivot to fill out the roster. That should start with the most obvious option that would be a tough pill to swallow, but there are other pivots that could be available to Houston as backup plans.

3. Astros should come crawling back to Alex Bregman

Given that the Astros had the Arenado trade at the finish line, the organization was clearly intent on not paying Alex Bregman and moving on from him. With Arenado off the table, the most logical first step is to see if a reunion is now salvageable in Houston. Yes, this might be the most expensive option for the franchise in this spot but, when you're backed into a corner, sometimes the club has to make a desperate maneuver such as this.

That makes this sound like it would be something that wouldn't help the Astros, which obviously wouldn't be the case. The simple truth of the matter is that Houston was clearly looking for cheaper ways to build out the lineup at third base than Bregman is going to cost on the open market. If those options are severe downgrades, though, then what's even the point?

Bregman has dominated with the Astros for a long time now and, though he did have a down 2024 by his standards, the interest league-wide in the veteran shows the belief that was the outlier, not the start of the trend. If Houston believes that and Bregman is also willing to return after essentially being pushed out the door, then it's the clear best choice in terms of backup plans.

If not, though, then the Astros might have to start getting a bit more creative.

2. An Alec Bohm trade just became a viable option for Houston

Now, before we say anything about the possibility of Alec Bohm joining the Astros, that's exclusively contingent upon Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies coming down to a realistic asking price for the first baseman. Considering they reportedly recently asked Oakland for Mason Miller in return for Bohm in a trade, there's a ways to go before Philadelphia is living in the real world in that trade market.

But on the chance that the Phils do start to become more rooted in reality, the Astros could do a lot worse than Bohm. Jorge Polanco has been rumored to be of interest for Houston as a potential option at third base but his .656 OPS doesn't exactly jump off the page as an enticing option for this lineup, especially when it would come to replacing Bregman at the position.

Bohm, on the other hand, was still a highly productive bat for Philadelphia, even with some high-profile cold spells. For the season, he posted a .280/.332/.448 slash line with 15 homers and 44 doubles. That would play, especially with the Crawford Boxes in left field potentially adding to his power numbers in Houston. It's, again, all about the trade price being right. But depending on what happens with exploring a Bregman reunion, it's something that Brown and the Astros front office need to deeply consider.

1. Paul Goldschmidt could be a dark horse option for the Astros

There's a chance that Brown and the Astros brass would look at Paul Goldschmidt and not repeat the mistakes made with the Jose Abreu signing previously. While I understand that trepidation, though, the acquisition of Isaac Paredes in the Kyle Tucker trade and his versatility at the corners could offer Houston the flexibility to pursue a first baseman instead of another third baseman.

And on the Goldschmidt front, there are some signs that 2024 was a down season that he'll bounce back from particularly in a better situation. As ESPN's Kiley McDaniel ($) noted early in the offseason, Goldschmidt's second half was noticeably better than a struggle-filled first half of the year and on par with the player he was in 2023. That's not nothing and could be worth investing in.

Moreover, the Astros' involvement in the Arenado trade at all shows that they're willing to bet on history and bounce-backs but prefer to do so at limited cost. While Pete Alonso and Christian Walker are obviously higher-upside first base options if Houston were to explore that route with Paredes in tow, Goldschmidt is almost surely more likely to align with their preferred price range.