The St. Louis Cardinals are 3-2 through the first five games of the 2025 season, which is better than most expected thus far.
However, the direction of the organization still isn’t quite clear. They didn’t trade any veterans in the offseason and only signed one free agent, reliever Phil Maton.
The Cardinals had planned a “reset,” but it all centered around a possible trade of Nolan Arenado, which fell through in December when he declined a trade to the Houston Astros.
When ranking the Top 100 players in Major League Baseball, ESPN had Willson Contreras at 96th and predicted that soon he’ll be anchoring the lineup, while Arenado goes elsewhere.
“Contreras has bulked up since his move to first base, and it will result in the first 30-homer season of his career. By the end of the year, he’ll be anchoring a bad Cardinals lineup that will be without Nolan Arenado,” Alden Gonzalez wrote.
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After the trade with Houston failed, the Cardinals tried to send Arenado to the Boston Red Sox, but they chose to sign Alex Bregman instead.
Perhaps if their offensive struggles continue, they could try again to acquire the eight-time All-Star from St. Louis. The window for Arenado to go to Houston is closed with top prospect Cam Smith taking over for Bregman.
But if the Cardinals continue losing games after their 3-0 start to the season, they likely will be sellers at the trade deadline, and this could include Arenado being traded to a contending team.
Trading Arenado would allow St. Louis to clear some payroll space and also open up third base for either Nolan Gorman or No. 5 prospect Thomas Saggese.
The trade deadline occurs on July 31. We’ll see if the Cardinals make a trade before then that involves Arenado.
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