The St. Louis Cardinals need Nolan Arenado and have the pieces to make Colorado happy

While the Cincinnati Reds are rumored to be making a big push for slugging Cleveland Indians infielder Francisco Lindor, the St. Louis Cardinals should be focusing their offseason efforts on trying to dislodge third baseman Nolen Arenado away from the Colorado Rockies.

It remains to be seen how serious the Rockies are at trading away their superstar slugger. But the club has been pretty open about the fact that it’s at least willing to listen to overtures. While the Colorado front office has been nearly impossible to deal with in the past (see Tulowitzki, Troy) the Cardinals have the pieces to make a trade that would greatly benefit both sides.

The simple trade: If it’s cheap prospects the Rockies want, the Cardinals can afford to let go of their brightest future star, Nolan Gorman. Arenado and Gorman play the same position and, if Arenado doesn’t opt out of his contract, he’d be in St. Louis for more than half a decade. So St. Louis can afford to part with Gorman. The Cardinals also could kick in an outfield and/or pitching prospect to make a deal happen.

The win now trade: If Colorado wants to cut payroll while remaining competitive, St. Louis could offer Carlos Martinez, Kolten Wong and outfielder Tyler O’Neill for Arenado and plug Tommy Edman in at second base. The Rockies would get three players who could contribute at the big league level immediately for less money than they were paying one player. Another possible piece is Harrison Bader who became a whipping boy last summer after struggling at the plate. I believe Bader has a lot more potential in his bat than he showed — and Bader’s ability to cover territory in the outfield would be valuable in Colorado.

The blockbuster: The Cardinals make a deal for both Arenado and send the Rockies top prospects to do it. But the Rockies have to take either Matt Carpenter or Dexter Fowler to make the books balance. Yeah, I know both of those guys have no-trade clauses. But both of them have reasons to accept a deal to Coloardo. Fowler started his career there and was a popular player in Colorado. He’d likely feel more comfortable finishing out his contract there than in St. Louis where he’s had an uneasy time. If Carpenter is looking to rehab his career, what better place is there to do it than Colorado? The spacious outfield might help him find more space to land pulled balls and the thin air fits his swinging for the fences M.O.

These are just thumbnail sketches of trade possibilities. There would probably be other pieces involved. But, any way you slice it, the Cardinals have appealing pieces to trade.

St. Louis is only one of several teams thought to be interested in Arenado. But it might be the best trade partner the Rockies could find. The Rangers are looking for a third baseman after losing out on the bidding for Anthony Rendon. If Josh Donaldson ends up with the Washington Nationals, as expected, Texas might be desperate. But the Rangers are in rebuilding mode and don’t have a lot of near major league ready talent they could afford to part with. The Dodgers are in on the bidding. But it’s difficult to imagine a scenario where two clubs in the National League West are going to be eager to do business with each other. The Rockies aren’t going to want to see Arenado showing up in blue 12 times a year while Los Angeles probably isn’t going to want to watch its best prospects spend the better part of a decade in purple.

The Cardinals and Rockies often have trouble lining up on a trade because they value players similarly. But they’d be coming at this potential deal from two very different places, so maybe this is the one that works out.

A mistake to let Adols Garcia go for nothing

Speaking of trades, it would have been nice if the Birds could have gotten something instead of giving a long ballyhooed prospect away for nothing this week.

I realize the Cardinals have a glut of outfield prospects. But it seems like a shame to give away Jose Adolis Garcia for nothing to make room on the 40-man roster for newly acquired pitcher Kwang-Hyun Kim. Wasn’t there some sort of market for a guy who hit 32 home runs and drove in 96 RBI? Sure, his walk rate was terrible. But Garcia had pop that couldn’t be taught.

All these outfielders aren’t going to make the big leagues, so it would be great if the front office could figure out which of the players it wants to keep and package the others in deals to bring in bodies to fill other areas of need.

This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 9:22 AM.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.