Nolan Arenado is open to trade with Cardinals of St. Ludwikat age 33, looking to compete in the World Series.
“He feels like his biological clock is ticking,” agent Joel Wolfe said Tuesday during the winter meetings. “And if the team doesn’t win, it drives them crazy every day and night throughout the offseason. And he takes it so personally, as if everything depended on him.”
Arenado, an eight-time All-Star third baseman and 10-time Gold Glove winner, is open to moving to first base. This year, he hit .272 with 16 homers and 71 RBI, his weakest season in a decade.
St. Louis acquired Arenado from Colorado before the 2021 season, lost in the wild-card round the first two years, then failed to make the playoffs in subsequent seasons.
“The Cardinals are changing direction and that’s fine. All teams do that,” Wolfe said. “So if that’s the case and they said it might be beneficial to transfer you and they were open and communicated that, he said, ‘I understand. “Let’s just try to find a place where they’re in a different place,” where he can just step in and help the team get to the next level.
Arenado played 1,629 games in the outfield during his big league career, all of them playing third base. He won a Gold Glove in the 2013–2022 season, tying Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki for winning the award in his first 10 seasons.
Arenado told Cardinals President of Baseball John Mozeliak that he is open to a position change.
“If it makes it easier for Mo to get on the right team, Nolan is more than willing to move,” Wolfe said, quoting his client as saying: “I don’t feel resentful if I go first and I can win a prize.” A Gold Glove if that’s what it takes.
“He wanted to be the first to offer it so Mo could tell other teams,” Wolfe said.
Arenado has a career .285 average with 341 homers and 1,132 RBI for the Cardinals and Colorado Rockies. He is owed $74 million for the final three seasons of a contract that is expected to pay him $275 million over nine years.
He has a full no-trade provision, which gives him the ability to decide on the destination.
“It’s more just a constant discussion about: Would you be okay with this team? Would you feel okay in this team?” Wolfe said. “We don’t want to waste Mo’s time because there are some reservations about where he’d rather not go and stuff like that. The discussion on how it works was quite dynamic.”
Associated Press reports.
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Nolan Arenado
Cardinals of St. Ludwik
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