The St. Louis Cardinals entered the offseason and quickly made it known they were looking to trade star infielder Nolan Arenado this winter.
Arenado is attached to a $64 million contract, which makes it quite difficult to move him, but the Cardinals are reportedly willing to eat part of the deal to trade him away.
Until now, the market for the star third baseman has grown dry. Teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and others that were seemingly interested haven’t shown as much interest as of late. This has left the door wide open for other teams to take their shot.
MLB.com’s John Denton recently reported the Los Angeles Dodgers had re-emerged in the Arenado sweepstakes after weeks of reportedly showing little interest. ”
A sticking point in any Arenado deal could come down to how much of the $64 million remaining on Arenado’s contract the Cardinals are willing to absorb,” Denton wrote.
“Initial trade talks in early January broke down when the Cardinals refused to pay as much as $20 million toward the balance of Arenado’s contract, a source said.
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.”
Los Angeles isn’t mentioned as being a team that’s being too aggressive in pursuit of Arenado, but that could quickly change.
Adding the Cardinals star to a Dodgers roster that’s already the clear top unit in the league would be borderline unfair.
Despite being on the older side, Arenado still has a lot of talent and would be a useful piece to any team pushing for a World Series.