The St. Louis Cardinals have been shopping third baseman Nolan Arenado all offseason, but they've struggled to find a perfect suitor. Arenado has quite a large chunk of money left on his contract. To make matters even tougher for St. Louis, the veteran has a no-trade clause in his contract. He's reportedly cleared a trade to a few teams, but remains a Cardinal as Spring Training gets underway.
MLB insider Jon Heyman of the New York Post recently reported that the Cardinals and Houston Astros have re-engaged trade talks for Arenado with the hope that the star would clear a trade now. Arenado reportedly shot down a potential trade to the Astros earlier this offseason.
“Since nothing else materialized — there were talks with Boston in case Alex Bregman went elsewhere — the Cardinals and Astros recently re-engaged in case Arenado would accept now," Heyman wrote. "That may still be the best hope. But there doesn’t appear to be anything imminent there, either.”
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Nolan Arenado trade update could spell great news for Astros fans
St. Louis and Houston reconvening raises plenty of questions.
How much money are the Astros willing to take on to land Arenado? Would the star third baseman clear a trade to Houston now? What's changed so significantly to make him do so? Are the Cardinals getting too desperate to deal him away?
It's not incredibly likely that Arenado would waive his no-trade clause for this deal, but there is a chance he's changed him mind.
Being with a team that very clearly and publicly doesn't want you has to be exhausting. While it might not be a huge deal during the offseason, now that spring training is in full swing, it can't be easy to be a place where you're not wanted. Even for a veteran like Arenado.
The Astros have already made a few moves to help the team compete in 2025. Adding Arenado, likely for very marginal prospect capital, would set Houston up quite nicely heading into the 2025 regular season.
Or this development could just be deja vu all over again for Cardinals fans.