{"id":584505,"date":"2026-02-21T08:53:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T08:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/584505\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T08:53:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T08:53:25","slug":"diamondbacks-nolan-arenado-gets-honest-on-spring-training-home-run-vs-rockies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/584505\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks’ Nolan Arenado Gets Honest on Spring Training Home Run vs. Rockies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> earned a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies<\/a> in their spring training opener on Friday. Nolan Arenado<\/a> — who was acquired this past offseason — crushed a home run early in the contest to give the D’Backs a boost. Of course, Arenado spent the first portion of his big league career in Colorado with the Rockies.<\/p>\n

After the game, Arenado was asked about<\/a> hitting a home run against his former ball club, via Arizona Sports.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

“It’s always kind of weird playing them,” Arenado said. “I don’t really know a lot of the players anymore. I know (Antonio Senzatela — who gave up the home run to Arenado) really well. I love that guy… I’m getting old, so all those guys… I don’t know a lot of those players anymore. Home runs off anybody, it doesn’t matter who it is, they always feel good.”<\/p>\n

The Diamondbacks are hoping that Arenado can bounce back after a difficult 2025 season with the St. Louis Cardinals<\/a>. It has only been one game in spring training, but he is certainly off to a good start.<\/p>\n

Nolan Arenado’s Outlook With Diamondbacks\"Former<\/p>\n

Former St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado (28) during the 2025 MLB season.\u00a9 Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(\u00a9 Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Arenado, as mentioned, began his career with the Rockies. He emerged as a star third baseman<\/a> in Colorado before getting traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. Arenado continued to find success in St. Louis early in his time with the Cardinals, but he has displayed signs of decline in recent years.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

In 2025, Arenado appeared in only 107 contests and hit just .237 during that span. He added 12 home runs. The Cardinals ultimately decided to move on from him, which resulted in the offseason trade to Arizona.<\/p>\n

Still, Arenado features power from the right side of the plate. He is still a respectable defender at third base as well. The 10-time Gold Glove winner may not be the same caliber of defender he once was, but Arenado is still more than capable of handling duties at the hot corner.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see how he ends up performing overall in 2026 with the Diamondbacks. Counting him out is a risky thing to do given his track record. Perhaps all Nolan Arenado needed was a fresh start.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

As for the Diamondbacks, Arizona will play its second game of spring training on Saturday against the Rockies once again. The D’Backs will then finish the weekend with a Sunday matchup with the Los Angeles Angels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Feb 21, 2026, where it first appeared in the MLB<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arizona Diamondbacks earned a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies in their spring training opener on Friday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[3569,146,22,44177,4314,5,52,38,56,4,1028,151,673,67,1605],"class_list":["post-584505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-antonio-senzatela","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-arizona-sports","tag-arizonadiamondbacks","tag-baseball","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-diamondbacks","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-mlb","tag-nolan-arenado","tag-spring-training","tag-st-louis","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-the-rockies"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116107779297885545","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584505","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=584505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}