{"id":519230,"date":"2026-01-14T02:38:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T02:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/519230\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T02:38:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T02:38:23","slug":"nolan-arenado-trade-is-win-for-diamondbacks-amid-limited-options-for-cardinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/519230\/","title":{"rendered":"Nolan Arenado trade is win for Diamondbacks amid limited options for Cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St. Louis Cardinals continued their offseason of offloading Tuesday, completing a deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks to send highly accomplished third baseman Nolan Arenado to the desert in exchange for right-hander Jack Martinez<\/a>, Arizona\u2019s eighth round draft pick last summer.<\/p>\n

At first glance, seeing a possible future Hall of Famer swapped for a minor-league arm who has yet to even throw a professional pitch looks jarringly imbalanced, but this trade is the product of a multitude of factors hovering over the names involved. It is the end result of a saga dating back to last offseason when the Cardinals sought to rid themselves of Arenado\u2019s onerous contract while also affording the veteran the opportunity to play for a contending team elsewhere while St. Louis shifts its organizational focus to the future rather than going all out to chase a championship in the short term. And while Arenado\u2019s name still carries significant weight league-wide as one of the most decorated position players of his generation, it\u2019s impossible to ignore the degree to which his performance has declined in recent years, which heavily informs the nature of the deal.<\/p>\n

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Arenado was an all-around force early in his career with the Colorado Rockies, compiling gaudy numbers at the plate playing half his games at Coors Field while playing generational defense at third base, earning a Gold Glove in all eight years of his Denver tenure. Traded to St. Louis just two seasons into the eight-year, $260 million extension he signed with Colorado before the 2019 season, Arenado quickly proved his superstar stats weren\u2019t merely the product of the hitter-friendly high-altitude in Colorado, delivering a spectacular 2022 season that saw him finish third in NL MVP voting. He continued to shine early on in his third season as a Cardinal in 2023, making his eighth career All-Star Game, but his production plummeted in the second half of that season, and has trended in the wrong direction ever since. His once otherworldly glove now merely rates as good, and his bat has sunk to slightly below league-average: Among 120 hitters with at least 1,000 plate appearances over the past two seasons, Arenado\u2019s 95 wRC+ ranks 107th.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Most crucially, Arenado held significant power within these negotiations, as the no-trade clause in his contract enabled him to green-light his destination once the Cardinals found a willing trade partner. Arenado famously rejected an agreed-upon trade to the Astros during last offseason in hopes that a different suitor would emerge before the 2025 season, but that never happened, nor did a trade come to fruition at last year\u2019s trade deadline while Arenado was in the midst of his worst season as a big leaguer. Nevertheless, Arenado and the Cardinals entered this offseason once again steadfast on finding a trade fit so both sides could move on, recognizing that moving the $41 million owed to Arenado in the next two seasons would be difficult considering his recent performance.<\/p>\n

[Get more Diamondbacks news: Arizona team feed<\/a>]<\/p>\n

As such, Arenado\u2019s modest on-field projection entering his age-35 season plus the fact that he still wielded a no-trade clause that enabled him to largely dictate his destination meant that there were minimal expectations regarding the Cardinals\u2019 ability to reel in a return of significant value. That Martinez is the only player Arizona had to part with and that St. Louis is covering $31M of the $42M owed to Arenado over the next two seasons fully validates those low expectations.<\/p>\n

\"ST<\/p>\n

Nolan Arenado isn’t the superstar player he used to be, but the D-backs landed a proven veteran at a position of need on a discount deal.<\/p>\n

(Dilip Vishwanat via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The D-Backs are a team that has spent much of the winter involved more in juicy rumors than actual transactional activity. Save the resigning of backup catcher James McCann and a pair of free agent pitching additions in December \u2014 the return of longtime rotation mainstay Merrill Kelly after he was traded to Texas at last year\u2019s deadline, plus Michael Soroka \u2014 the D-backs have made far more headlines for moves they were reportedly contemplating rather than moves they\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n

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First, it was the possibility that the Snakes would be willing to trade star second baseman Ketel Marte, a delicate gambit in theory intended to leverage their strong position player depth by dealing the ultra-valuable Marte in exchange for sorely-needed young pitching. Meanwhile, there was also consistent reporting that the D-backs were expressing interest in free agent third baseman Alex Bregman, perhaps as a creative avenue to replace Marte in the event they did trade him and his salary (and production) elsewhere. Ultimately, general manager Mike Hazen determined last week that Marte was no longer available in trade discussions. A few days later, Bregman agreed to a deal with the Chicago Cubs<\/a>, rendering both intriguing scenarios irrelevant despite weeks of speculation.<\/p>\n

Exactly how serious Arizona was in its pursuit of Bregman is unclear, but those rumors did suggest the club viewed third base as an area of need. That\u2019s not an enormous surprise considering the Snakes had dealt away Eugenio Suarez at last year\u2019s trade deadline, but it also seemed reasonable to look at Arizona\u2019s depth chart and view this as a chance finally give the keys to 23-year-old Jordan Lawlar, the top infield prospect who has consistently raked in the minors but has yet prove himself in the majors, in part due to the series of injuries that has limited his availability. A sensible path for Arizona could have been to roll with Lawlar at third base and focus its offseason strategy and spending almost exclusively on adding much-needed pitching.<\/p>\n

Evidently, Arizona still viewed Arenado for what will only cost $11M over the next two seasons as a worthy upgrade. It\u2019s more likely that says more the degree to which even this diminished version of Arenado could be a bargain at that price than Arizona\u2019s confidence in Lawlar long-term, but it is an interesting roster-construction choice nonetheless. Just as we just saw with the Cubs signing Bregman despite the presence of a talented young infielder in Matt Shaw, contending teams are often willing to add veteran certainty even if it costs young, less-proven players playing time. That\u2019s not to say Arenado should be expected to make remotely the same level of impact as Bregman in Chicago, but it\u2019s also not hard to imagine Arizona liking the idea of adding a well-respected veteran like Arenado to a position player group that skews quite young. And if he can even provide some stability at third base more than any semblance of star power he still has left, that could play a meaningful role in boosting Arizona\u2019s chances of staying afloat in what is expected to be another heated National League postseason race.<\/p>\n

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Speaking of the Snakes chasing a return to the postseason, If there is something still lacking on Arenado\u2019s loaded r\u00e9sum\u00e9, it\u2019s any semblance of memorable postseason success. Arenado has made just four trips to the postseason in his 13 years in the majors \u2014 two with Colorado and two with St. Louis \u2014 but has never advanced beyond the division series. He hasn\u2019t exactly shined in those limited opportunities \u2014 he has just five hits in 33 career postseason at-bats \u2014 but in general, his lack of October experience obviously has far less to do with his own efforts and more about the teams he has been a part of.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, as his career winds down, it\u2019s understandable that Arenado would prioritize a club with ambitions of contending when surveying the landscape of possible trade destinations. Of course, it wasn\u2019t entirely up to Arenado, as a team that what he was looking for still needed to step up and view Arenado as a worthwhile addition. Acknowledging that Arenado likely didn\u2019t have a wealth of contending teams desperate for a player of his current caliber, Arizona is a pretty solid landing spot, all things considered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St. Louis Cardinals continued their offseason of offloading Tuesday, completing a deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[72,146,22,4314,5,24,52,38,92,1198,543,729,716,660,1353,4,1028,1711,673,67,1567,7965],"class_list":["post-519230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-alex-bregman","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-arizonadiamondbacks","tag-baseball","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-diamondbacks","tag-eugenio-suarez","tag-james-mccann","tag-jordan-lawlar","tag-ketel-marte","tag-matt-shaw","tag-merrill-kelly","tag-michael-soroka","tag-mlb","tag-nolan-arenado","tag-position-player","tag-st-louis","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-texas","tag-the-astros"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115891137134304803","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}