‘It’s an oddity’: Mozeliak opens final Cardinals camp with Arenado trade still looming
John Mozeliak began his final camp opening press conference as the St. Louis Cardinals’ president of baseball operations with a frank assessment of the traditional gathering.
“Typically we spend a lot of time rehashing all of the accomplishments of the offseason,” he noted dryly, “so this will be brief.”
Pitchers and catchers went through their first formal workouts of camp on Wednesday morning, with a small but enthusiastic group of fans waiting out the sun and schedule to see Quinn Mathews throw from a mound. Catchers chased pop-ups in the outfield grass of a back field, fighting the teeth of a swirling wind.
Everything looked and sounded like baseball, even if the air in camp felt like a large group waiting for the largest shoe still to drop.
To date, the only Arenado in camp has been Nolan’s cousin Luis, a minor league coach who bears a shocking resemblance to the team’s third baseman. He retains that title for now, with uncertainty to follow in the coming days and weeks.
“We’re still looking at what [trading Arenado] might look like,” Mozeliak said. “Could something happen in the next week? Possibly. Could this go into camp? Possibly. I really don’t have, like, a definitive answer for everybody that’s curious what will be the answer, so patience is required.”
Patience has been the watchword of the winter, perhaps yielding only to “stillness” or “malaise.” The oft-repeated and now certainly regretted line from Mozeliak has been that trading Arenado in an attempt to clear payroll space and provide roster clarity was priorities one, two and three.
Without an obvious deadline to spur action, though, the sides remain at a standstill, just as they have been since Arenado blocked a trade to Houston with his no-trade clause in December.
Fastidious as ever in his refusal to discuss free agents not under contract, Alex Bregman’s name never crossed Mozeliak’s lips. Late Wednesday, that major domino toppled, as Bregman agreed to a three-year contract with the Boston Red Sox, providing market clarity even as a potential destination came off the board. The overlap in the markets of the two players has been obvious, and it’s reinforced by Arenado’s own preferences.
Mozeliak confirmed Wednesday for the first time that Arenado’s camp had provided the Cardinals with a list of five destinations to which the third baseman would accept a deal, and said that the list had not expanded in recent weeks as the process drew out. Four of those five teams, per past reporting and a source, are the Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and San Diego Padres.
San Diego is mired in a dispute between the brothers and widow of late owner Peter Seidler, and is much more interested in shedding financial commitments than adding them. The other three clubs might all be viable destinations, though it’s difficult to see an obvious roster fit with the Dodgers unless the Cardinals were willing to accept in return a sizable contract as well as paying down part of Arenado’s.
Doing so would undercut both of their goals in a potential trade, leaving them better off simply keeping Arenado in house. That path would require both team and player to be comfortable existing in an environment with an attempted but not consummated divorce hanging over the season.
“I imagine there might be a moment of awkwardness,” Mozeliak said about that possibility. “I still think that he’s a professional baseball player, he’s currently a St. Louis Cardinal, and we all understand that once you’re here [in camp], pushing for that.”
The next major signpost on this road will come Sunday, when position players are required to report in with the team before the first full squad workout on Monday, Feb. 17. Mozeliak said the Cardinals expect Arenado to report as scheduled if not traded before then. “We don’t have holdouts in this sport,” he quipped.
All indications are that Arenado’s camp feels the same and that he intends to report, though communication has been somewhat sparse in recent weeks. With arbitration hearings underway – Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported that Lars Nootbaar won his hearing against the club and Brendan Donovan lost his – there has been other pressing business at work.
There’s also the lingering awkwardness of two players who were taken to hearings, Nootbaar and Andre Pallante, being represented by the same agency which represents Arenado. The baseball world can be small and interwoven at times, and all paths through the offseason from St. Louis ran through Wasserman.
There were no other lingering issues for Mozeliak to report. To his knowledge, no players were experiencing issues with immigration or visa delays, and other than lefty Drew Rom, there are no players entering camp with physical limitations which would change their schedules.
Until the situation with the third baseman is resolved, he is the story.
Mozeliak’s final spring, one which he might have hoped to view with some perspective or even sentimentality, is instead still beset by the one piece of business which the club allowed to obscure all others, and which now has no certain resolution.
“At the moment, I haven’t really had that moment of reflection,” Mozeliak said. “Right now, it’s still trying to figure out a way to achieve certain goals with this team, and ultimately that’s what we’re working toward.
“It’s an oddity, right? Normally we open this thing with, like, feeling really good about what we accomplished in the off season, and then the hope of spring. Everybody gets excited when they’re down here and we go play baseball, but right now, you have this over our heads, and that’s what we’re just working through.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
