The St. Louis Cardinals are clearly trying to head in a bit of a different direction with their team under their new President of Baseball Operations in Chair Bloom. One of those directions they plan to head in to restructure the team is trading Nolan Arenado.
Bloom all but confirmed this when he went on to say “we all feel like it’s best to find a different fit” in regards to Nolan Arenado’s future at the MLB General Manager Meetings. With the Cardinals having Nolan Gorman and JJ Wetherholt to build around for the future, trading Arenado for the assets to do so makes sense.
With Nolan Arenado seemingly going to be traded, the team that makes sense to trade for him is the Los Angeles Angels.
*THIS IS A PREDICTION, NOT A REPORT*
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The Los Angeles Angels are in a spot where they are going to have to figure out what to do with their third base spot. They currently have Anthony Rendon there, but there have also been talks about there being a buy-out from the Angels to clear his seven-year, $245 million contract off the books.
With no solution at third base beyond Rendon, the Angels need to find a solution there if they are going to have any shot at trying to compete while Mike Trout is still on the team. The way they can accomplish this and fix their third base spot is by trading for Nolan Arenado.
Nolan Arenado does have a no-trade clause, but with him being from Southern California, he might have interest in ending off his career playing for a team close to home to waive his clause. While Arenado is coming off a season in which he had a slash line of .237/.289/.377, which is a bit down from his 2022 season production, he can still provide valuable offense that the Angels need alongside Trout.
Between his stabilizing offensive production, and still good defensive production he provides at third base, he is the trade target the Angels need to do whatever they can to make sure they get the deal done this offseason.