The St. Louis Cardinals do not want to shell out $21 million to a player who does not want to play for their organization in 2025. For the entirety of the offseason, the Cardinals have been weighing options to move Nolan Arenado to take his salary off their payroll and prepare for the future.
As the 2025 season vastly approaches, it is starting to look likely that Arenado will at least start the year with St. Louis which is not an ideal situation for Arenado or the Cardinals organization. The only hope for the Cardinals is to find teams who may be desperate enough to make a trade before this offseason ends. Here are three teams that could fit the bill.
Seattle Mariners
The Seattle Mariners are coming off of a season where they finished just 3.5 games behind the Houston Astros in the AL West and were just one game out from making the playoffs as a Wild Card. Many believe that if Seattle had a little more firepower in their offense, they would become more of a threat. Acquiring Arenado could address this need.
Arenado is coming off one of his worst offensive seasons but still has shown flashes of being a major threat. He hit .272 with 16 home runs and 70 RBIs last season. While Arenado has openly discussed that playing half of his games at Busch Stadium could play a factor in his offensive performance decrease, it could just be the fact that he has been part of an underperforming Cardinals team.
Penciling in Arenado’s name on a lineup with Julio Rodriguez, JP Crawford and Randy Arozarena could turn the Mariners into playoff contenders. Even if Seattle isn’t exactly a hitter-friendly destination, the Mariners may be desperate enough for another bat to help the Cardinals out by taking on Arenado’s contract.
Houston Astros
The Mariners may not be the only team in the AL West with Nolan Arenado on their radar. After winning the division title last season, the Houston Astros will be looking for a way to make a deeper run in the postseason. Nolan Arenado could help with this.
For the past nine seasons, the Astros have had Alex Bregman at the hot corner. Even though Bregman is still a free agent, all rumors and hints point to him signing elsewhere and not returning to Houston. Obviously losing Bregman would be a tough pill to swallow for the Astros but if they were able to get Arenado, it would potentially be an upgrade.
A World Series championship has been the expectation for the Astros for the past several years. It is unlikely that Houston would lose a player of Bregman’s caliber and not pursue the best possible replacement which could very well be Nolan Arenado, even if it costs them a hefty amount of prospects in the trade. Additionally, Houston would likely have no issue taking on the entirety of Arenado’s contract if they are willing to take a chance on him.
For the majority of the offseason, the Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays seemed like the only two teams in the AL East that were idle. However, over the last couple of weeks, Ross Atkins has proved that he had a plan all along by acquiring outfielder Anthony Santander and future Hall of Famer starting pitcher Max Scherzer.
These two signings have proved that Toronto is indeed not submitting to the Yankees, Red Sox and Orioles. Trading for Nolan Arenado could improve the Blue Jays offense tremendously. There have also been rumors that Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s time in Toronto is coming to an end. Given the most recent sequence of events regarding the Blue Jays that seems hard to believe. If there is truth to that, we could see a straight swap of Guerrero for Arenado. If Guerrero is staying put, a lineup with Bo Bichette, Anthony Santander, Vladdy, George Springer and Nolan Arenado could suddenly put Toronto in the mix for playoff contention.
