The dollars and cents have to make sense first. Make it make sense then! Why would a team playing great baseball of late like the St. Louis Cardinals potentially trade away a future hall of famer in third baseman Nolan Arenado? He is still under contract with the Cardinals for the next few seasons, but he does not seem to be the same productive player he once was, now that he is firmly into his mid-30s.
Not to say this is the exact reason why John Mozeliak would part ways with Arenado prematurely by way of a trade, but if the right offers manifests, the Cardinals should be just fine. This is because the Cardinals have so many promising extension candidates in-house. Josh Jacobs of Redbird Rants named five in Brendan Donovan, Ivan Herrera, Matthew Liberatore, Victor Scott II and Masyn Winn.
Jacobs argued that it may be a tad premature to extend Liberatore and Scott, but the Cardinals could still get good value there. St. Louis may have missed the boat on getting Donovan extended, as he is having a sensational start to this season. As far as Herrera and Winn are concerned, extend them now! All this means is that Arenado and his .228 batting average is more expendable than we thought.
St. Louis enters play on Tuesday vs. the Kansas City Royals with a strong 33-26 record on the season.
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What kind of team could be interested in trading for Nolan Arenado?
Like his former Cardinals teammate Paul Goldschmidt, Arenado has seemingly done everything on the baseball diamond to date, outside of winning a World Series. While he is a few years younger than Goldschmidt, Arenado has yet to play for a real winner at this stage of his career. We all know what the Colorado Rockies are about. Prior to this year, St. Louis had not been playing up to its standard.
Again, the right situation would have to manifest. A contending team's starting third baseman would have to go down for the count, probably over in the American League, as it may be too punitive to trade Arenado in the National League with a few more years left on his contract. Truth be told, the Cardinals may not get as much in return as they would like. It would be about freeing up some salary.
Baseball may not have a salary cap, but you cannot keep paying declining players like Arenado big-time money. I still think he has a few more good years left, but we have probably seen his best days as a big-leaguer already. Perhaps a change of scenery could get him that ring he desires? St. Louis should be a playoff team, but I am not entirely sure they have what it takes to win the National League.
Trading Arenado would be quite controversial, but if it frees up extension money, it could be justified.