The St. Louis Cardinals are in the middle of a “reset.” This means that some players may be traded away and payroll will be reduced.
One player that is increasingly likely to be sold off is third baseman and former All-Star Nolan Arenado. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak made clear that he intends to trade Arenado earlier this week.
Recently, Chandler Rome of The Athletic revealed that the Houston Astros have become a “serious suitor” for Arenado.
“In perhaps the clearest sign the organization is moving on from Alex Bregman, the Houston Astros have emerged as a serious suitor for St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado, multiple league sources told The Athletic on Saturday,” Rome wrote.
It appears that the Astros are planning to move on from Alex Bregman. Trading for Arenado would give them the chance to do that.
As for the Cardinals, they would be shedding some payroll and clearing out a spot for one of their young players to claim the starting third base job.
The most obvious candidate to claim the job is Nolan Gorman, though the Cardinals could move Brendan Donovan there or even give prospect Thomas Saggese the reins.
Arenado hit .272 with 16 home runs, 71 RBI and a .719 OPS during the regular season. The numbers were a far cry from where he was in 2022 when he was a National League MVP finalist behind his former Cardinals teammate Paul Goldschmidt.
We’ll see if a deal materializes between the Astros and Cardinals.
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