It’ll be a huge mistake if the St. Louis Cardinals don’t trade for Nolan Arenado

Is this really all the St. Louis Cardinals are going to do this offseason?

It’s beginning to look like it.

The lack of activity has caused a serious divide among Cardinals fans. Either you’re one of the folks who thinks the club is cheap, fleecing fans out of their hard-earned ticket money. Or else you’re an apologist who thinks team President of Baseball operations John Mozeliak can do no wrong. There seemingly is nothing in between.

Personally, I don’t see how anyone who follows the Cardinals can’t be at least a little bit disappointed after seeing a team that struggled mightily at times in 2019 do nothing besides subtract its cleanup hitter without adding a suitable replacement to the roster.

It doesn’t make any sense to expect players who didn’t do much of anything last season but get a year older to markedly improve their performance in 2020. It doesn’t exactly make me excited for the coming season to know the big plan is to tread water while hoping for everybody else in the division to get worse. And I don’t want to hear about keeping dry powder for the trade deadline because we have seen this front office time and time again throw its collective hands in the air in shock when it sees the high price of talent when demand is at the highest and supply is low. The time to add to the roster is now.

Some people say the Cardinals don’t need to make a move because they came up one series short of making it to the World Series in 2019. However, I see it from the opposite perspective. When you’re a few steps away from the top of the mountain, that’s not the time to pack up base camp and head back down the hill. It’s the time to redouble your efforts and make a big push to reach the summit.

I really thought the Cardinals were going to make this Nolan Arenado thing happen, which all by itself could be the thing that put St. Louis over the top. It made too much sense. Arenado has been one of the most coveted players by the front office in recent memory. He’s a complete player, a real game changer who would instantly make the offense and defense better in a single move. St. Louis has the pieces to get a deal done. It would be the most transcendent trade the team has made since the last time it traded for power-hitting third baseman by the name of Scott Rolen from the Philadelphia Phillies.

Cardinals can’t let Arenado end up with Cubs

The Colorado Rockies front office is notoriously difficult to deal with. But this is not a time to let a deal get away in the eleventh hour, especially when the Chicago Cubs have come sniffing around an Arenado trade. Wishful thinking on the part of the Chicago media calls for the Cubs to trade third baseman Kris Bryant to the Rockies for the disgruntled Arenado. But it doesn’t make any sense for the Cubs to trade Bryant because he’s going to be a fee agent in two years for Arenado who has an opt out that would allow him to become a free agent in two years. The Rockies would largely be in the same boat they are now, although they’d save a few million dollars the next two seasons, they’d still have the same problem that their marquee player could walk away as a free agent in two years. And while he’s cheaper, Bryant isn’t nearly as good as Arenado. The latter is a better hitter and he’s head and shoulders over Bryant with his glove.

If Arenado ends up with the Cubs, it would only be because the Cardinals blew their chance to take firm control over the National League Central, settling for fielding a decent team when they could have been great.

While it sure looks as if the Cardinals never intended to do anything this winter, the chance to add Arenado is too rare an opportunity to pass up. Did team Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. mean it when he said that the club is always open to deals to truly make the team better? This is his chance to silence doubters once and for all.

This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 10:12 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.