The St. Louis Cardinals have been actively shopping Nolan Arenado throughout the offseason but are yet to find a trade partner willing to take on his remaining salary.
The Los Angeles Dodgers were one of the rumored candidates to acquire the 10-time Gold Glove Award winner, though their level of interest in Arenado has been unclear.
The whole trade saga could have come to an end back in December when the Cardinals agreed to a deal with the Houston Astros, but Arenado exercised his no-trade clause.
Whatever Arenado’s reason for preventing the trade, it required the Cardinals to remain in search of a solution. Their lack of success has brought them back to the negotiating table with new terms for the Dodgers, Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, according to John Denton of MLB.com:
After failing to make much trade progress elsewhere throughout January, the Cardinals reengaged the Red Sox, Yankees and Dodgers about possible restructured deals for the star third baseman.
It has been a pretty one-sided pursuit thus far as the Southern California native’s preferred destination is pretty clear, but the Dodgers have no incentive to facilitate a trade with Max Muncy already on the roster at much more cost-controlled terms.
The Cardinals’ willingness to eat some of Arenado’s salary could help move things along. If not for the Dodgers, then perhaps the Red Sox or Yankees.
That could very well have been the plan all along for the teams negotiating with the Cardinals, as they have all the leverage in this scenario thanks to Arenado’s no-trade clause, which severely limits St. Louis’ options.
Arenado still has value to offer a Major League organization even if his offensive production isn’t what it used to be. He could be especially valuable if a team believes they can assist with an offensive resurgence, but his current contract could make that an unattractive gamble.
The Cardinals now offering a discount increases the likelihood of a trade with the 2025 season approaching.
Nolan Arenado’s remaining contract
Arenado has three years and $74 million remaining on the contract extension he signed with the Colorado Rockies in 2019. The Rockies are already responsible for $10 million of that total.
Regardless of who ends up paying Arenado, his remaining contract is broken down into yearly installments of $32 million, $27 million and $15 million.
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