Nolan Arenado did the impossible as Cardinals fans feel sorry for John Mozeliak

The St. Louis Cardinals have been desperate to move Nolan Arenado for the entire offseason. But as teams report for spring training this week, we're still waiting on a deal, with no one super enthused at the prospect of taking on the three years remaining on Arenado's contract given his age and evident offensive decline.

It seemed like the dam had finally broken on Wednesday night, as Arenado's fellow third baseman, Alex Bregman, landed with the Boston Red Sox on a three-year, $120 million deal. And yet, if anything, Thursday brought even worse news for Cardinals fans, as it seemed like the options for an Arenado deal had well and truly dried up. And this time, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak wasn't willing to take the high road.

"I think it would have to open up a little bit more, yes," Mozeliak said in reference to Arenado's list of approved trade destinations, while acknowledging the increasing likelihood that the eight-time All-Star will still be in St. Louis on Opening Day. "We've exhausted the others."

You can almost hear the exasperation from here. And while it's maybe not the best look for an executive to put a star player on blast through the media — and Mozeliak has made more than his share of mistakes in recent years — we've gotten to the point where we're starting to feel a little sorry for him.

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Nolan Arenado has somehow turned John Mozeliak into the good guy amid trade debacle

Okay, so maybe "good" is a little bit too strong. Mozeliak's many missteps are the primary reason that St. Louis finds itself in a position in which it needs to get out from under Arenado's contract and start over in the first place. But if you set all of that to one side, it's hard to figure out how else exactly Mozeliak was supposed to handle the Arenado situation this offseason.

It was clear that the Cardinals roster was in need of a shakeup, one that — through a mix of player-development failures, bad contracts from previous winters and the DeWitt family clinging a bit too tightly to the pursue strings — would require freeing up a significant amount of money. St. Louis' current core had run its course; for something new to grow in its wake, the team had to, at least to a certain extent, wipe the slate clean and let the incoming regime start over.

Arenado was the obvious candidate, both as the team's biggest salary and as a declining player entering his age-34 season who's unlikely to be a meaningful part of the next competitive Cardinals squad. Exploring a trade was and remains the right tack for Mozeliak to have taken, even if he could've been a little more tactful about it.

The problem? Arenado's full no-trade clause, which no one forced the Cardinals to give him and which he has every right to exercise as he sees fit. But given the circumstances, it's hard to fault Mozeliak for the fact that he's been unable to move his third baseman yet this offseason. He even had a deal in place with the Houston Astros, only for Arenado to nix it at the last moment, and it's not Mozeliak's fault that the handful of teams for which Arenado was willing to approve a trade left the Cardinals with essentially zero leverage.

Sure, maybe Mozeliak should've been able to foresee that Arenado wouldn't sign off on a deal that helped St. Louis moving forward. But if he hadn't even tried, fans would've gotten on him about that too, especially if it hamstrung the rest of the team's offseason plans. Mozeliak can't be thrilled at having to sit on his hands during his final offseason at the helm of the Cardinals, and it's understandable that he wants to shift a little bit of the blame for it onto the player who's unwilling to meet he or the team halfway.