Trade for Arenado positions St. Louis Cardinals to win now and in the future
The dopes have been roped and the Cardinals have hope.
After a multi-year pursuit during which their odds of success waxed and waned and at the end of an interminable winter in which the club plead for patience and understanding of cost cutting, the Cardinals asserted themselves as the runaway favorite in the National League Central on Monday, finalizing the acquisition of third baseman Nolan Arenado from the Colorado Rockies.
“Once I heard that it was done, I’m thrilled,” a visibly relieved Arenado said Tuesday. “I’m very excited to join this team.
“I’ve always admired this organization from afar. When I was a rookie, we went to St. Louis, and the first thing (Troy Tulowitzki) told me when we got there was, ‘just watch these guys play the game, and you’re gonna learn something.’
“He was quite right about that, because this team is extremely talented, and they did the little things to win ball games. That’s something I’ve always admired about this organization.”
Arenado, 29, has won the NL Gold Glove at third base in each of his eight Major League seasons. He’s also won the Silver Slugger at third in four of those seasons, has five times been in the top eight in most valuable player voting, and in each of the last four years has won the Platinum Glove as the best defensive player at any position in the NL.
In return, the Cardinals sent a package of players to Colorado including pitchers Austin Gomber, Tony Locey and Jake Sommers and infielders Mateo Gil and Elehuris Montero.
News of the deal first broke Friday, though the process of approval stretched through the weekend and into Monday. The Rockies will send the Cardinals approximately $50 million to offset some of the $199 million remaining on Arenado’s contract, and Arenado has agreed to some salary deferrals.
In return for those concessions and an agreement to waive his no-trade clause, Arenado — pronounced “ahr,” like car — will receive an additional chance to opt out of his contract following the 2022 season and a one year, $15 million extension that could keep him a Cardinal through his age-36 season. He also maintains the existing opt out which may be exercised following the 2021 season.
Asked Tuesday about the criteria which he will apply when determining whether to exercise those options, Arenado was blunt: “I plan on sticking around.”
Credit to Mozeliak
That financial wrangling results in a unique set of circumstances for St. Louis — they are the beneficiaries of, essentially, a one-year free trial of the Nolan Arenado experience, as the Rockies are covering the portion of his 2021 salary which is not deferred.
“I give John Mozeliak and his team a lot of credit for working through a pretty complicated transaction, as you might imagine,” Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt, Jr. said. “It took several days to get it done but in the end, we got our man, which is very exciting.
“When we took over the club 25 years ago, our goal was to maintain and enhance the wonderful Cardinal franchise ... When you have an opportunity to get premium players from other clubs for whatever reason, it’s incumbent upon us to bring them to St. Louis.”
The Cardinals, while being guaranteed only one year of Arenado being ensconced at third base, are getting that year for free. As bargains go, a fiscally prudent club could certainly do worse.
Arenado’s frustrations with management in Colorado seemed to reach a boiling point prior to the 2020 season, as he spoke of “disrespect” related to media reports of trade rumors which followed the superstar for a number of years, even after he signed a supersized extension with the Rockies.
Vindication for St. Louis
The Cardinals laid low throughout that stretch, periodically checking in to see if the player who they believed would cement the corners of their infield alongside Paul Goldschmidt was truly available. Financial hurdles and the Rockies’ outsized talent demands stymied an agreement for a period of years.
Then, the pandemic came, along with a trade request from Arenado, who grew frustrated with the noncompetitive Rockies and their scattershot front office.
In St. Louis, the deal is a vindication of an offseason in which the club seemingly maintained an outsized focus on its financial future. While the uncertainty of a return to normalcy from the pandemic remains, it’s now been supplemented with the certainty of knowing the best third baseman in the majors now calls St. Louis home.
That, to be sure, carries its own value, especially for the price.
‘I want to thank the fans’
The financial challenges which have struck baseball over the last year provided an alibi, if not a direct need, for the Rockies to divest themselves from their debt to Arenado. The Cardinals, who have pledged throughout the winter that they intend to decrease their payroll from last year’s level, were able to achieve that goal while simultaneously securing the services of a player who now is poised to be the face of the franchise for years to come.
“The Cardinals are fortunate to have fans who support us year in and year out, and we have an obligation to bring them the best team possible, the best players possible,” DeWitt said. “They make it possible.
“I want to thank the fans, as I always do when we make a big financial commitment, because without their support, we wouldn’t be able to do it. I would call this a red letter day for the Redbirds.”
This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 1:17 PM.
