{"id":541888,"date":"2026-01-28T06:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/541888\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T06:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:19:13","slug":"even-former-cardinals-3b-nolan-arenado-was-surprised-by-st-louis-sudden-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/541888\/","title":{"rendered":"Even former Cardinals 3B Nolan Arenado was surprised by St. Louis\u2019 sudden struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even former Cardinals 3B Nolan Arenado was surprised by St. Louis\u2019 sudden struggles<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The St. Louis Cardinals continue navigating a franchise reset, and recent comments from Nolan Arenado<\/a> offered revealing perspective on how abruptly the decline unfolded internally. A rebuilding phase, prolonged struggles, and the fallout from Arenado\u2019s departure now frame the organization\u2019s transition under new leadership.<\/p>\n

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The former Cardinals third baseman<\/a> addressed the situation in his first major interview since leaving St. Louis, offering rare insight into expectations that ultimately never materialized.<\/p>\n

The Cards entered recent seasons confident its organizational structure would sustain long-term competitiveness, a belief that defined the franchise for decades. That confidence unraveled beginning in 2023, when a complete pitching collapse led to a last-place finish in the NL Central, followed by an offense-wide regression in 2024 that left a veteran-heavy roster unable to contend despite a winning record. By 2025, the shortcomings of that approach were undeniable, forcing a reset as aging production, roster imbalance, and stalled player development exposed systemic limitations.<\/p>\n

Arenado appeared on the popular Foul Territory TV baseball podcast in an interview later posted to X (formerly known as Twitter), where he reflected on his time with the club and admitted he did not expect<\/a> the team to fall out of contention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we were going to be good. I think the Cardinals have always found a way to be, even when on paper it may not look like they\u2019re going to be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement resonated because it came from a veteran accustomed to organizational stability. The Cardinals struggled offensively in 2025 and finished under .500, with injuries, aging production, and roster inflexibility compounding those issues.<\/p>\n

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St. Louis pivoted soon after, trading Arenado<\/a> to the Arizona Diamondbacks while committing to a youth-driven approach. The trade now symbolizes the end of a competitive era that never fully delivered on its promise.<\/p>\n

For the Cardinals, Arenado\u2019s surprise validates the decision to reset. For fans, it confirms how quickly expectations unraveled inside one of baseball\u2019s most consistent organizations.<\/p>\n

Related: Cardinals rumors: Will St. Louis end up making Brendan Donovan trade?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even former Cardinals 3B Nolan Arenado was surprised by St. Louis\u2019 sudden struggles appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[22,5,160,4,1028,673,67,4311,4310,22114],"class_list":["post-541888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-louis-cardinals","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-baseball","tag-cardinals","tag-mlb","tag-nolan-arenado","tag-st-louis","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-stlouis","tag-stlouiscardinals","tag-the-cards"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115971278031069834","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541888","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=541888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}