Nolan Arenado's preferred suitor revealed, and it isn't the expected AL East team

After nearly a month of waiting, it felt as if the Nolan Arenado sweepstakes had finally come to an end — until they hadn't. The Houston Astros were deep in talks to acquire the eight-time All-Star in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals, only for Arenado to invoke his no-trade clause, blocking a potential deal. The reason for that from Arenado's end was he wanted to take more time to see how the offseason unfolded.

The Astros quickly pivoted from the Arenado veto, instead choosing to sign Christian Walker to a three-year deal. That signing not only ensured that Alex Bregman would be playing elsewhere in 2025, but that Arenado wasn't going to end up in Houston either.

Ever since the Astros trade fell apart, it's been mostly crickets on the Arenado front. With Bregman still sitting in free agency, that's hardly surprising. A surprising Arenado update on Sunday revealed that the third baseman might have a preferred destination in mind, and it isn't the AL East team many would expect.

According to Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam of MassLive, the Boston Red Sox are a preferred destination, if not the preferred destination, for Nolan Arenado. That's a bit surprising.

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Red Sox, not Yankees, appear to be Nolan Arenado's preferred destination

Arenado preferring the Red Sox over the New York Yankees maybe shouldn't be too surprising considering the fact that Boston was on his reported list of acceptable suitors a while back and New York was not, but, when looking at both rosters, Arenado preferring Boston is a bit curious.

First and foremost, if Arenado's main priority is winning, the Yankees probably have the better roster on paper. Yes, they lost Juan Soto, but were able to bring in Max Fried, Devin Williams, Cody Bellinger, and Paul Goldschmidt. The Red Sox undoubtedly lessened the gap by bringing in Garrett Crochet, Walker Buehler, and Aroldis Chapman, but were those moves enough to close the 13-game gap between these two teams in 2024 entirely?

Second, the fit in the Bronx is much clearer. If the regular season began today, one of DJ LeMahieu or Oswaldo Cabrera would be New York's third baseman. On the flip side, the Red Sox have Rafael Devers at third base, Triston Casas at first, and Masataka Yoshida as the team's DH. The Red Sox would probably have to move Casas, a 24-year-old budding star, just to make room for Arenado. Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow has been clear that he does not plan on trading Casas.

Fenway Park suits Arenado better than Yankee Stadium, but other than that, it's hard to envision why the Red Sox would be preferred over the Yankees.

As of this writing, it's unclear if either the Yankees or Red Sox even have interest in acquiring Arenado. It wouldn't take much to bring him in player-wise, but the Cardinals want to shed most of the expensive three years remaining on his contract. Whether the Red Sox or Yankees want to pay up for the 33-year-old coming off his worst season, especially when Bregman is sitting in free agency, remains to be seen. It's also unclear whether Arenado would consider the Yankees if they seriously pursued a trade to reunite him with Goldschmidt in the Bronx.

It'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out. Once Bregman picks his new team, the Arenado market might finally begin to really heat up.