2 Cardinals trade chips they'll regret holding onto, 1 they'll be thankful they did

Following the St. Louis Cardinals end of season press conference, it felt safe to say we'd be seeing multiple members of their Major League roster moved in trade this offseason.

Well, it's now January 9th, and exactly zero such moves have happend to this point.

Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray wishing to stay with St. Louis plays a strong role in that. The mixture of Miles Mikolas' no-trade clause and bad contract also does too. You could also argue they already kind of did make a trade, but Nolan Arenado nixed it before it truly was complete with the Houston Astros and he remains a Cardinal.

And yet, there are players on their roster like Ryan Helsley, Erick Fedde, and Steven Matz who they could likely move if they desired, but have chosen not to up until this point. No one is stopping them from getting creative with young players on their roster and moving them for talent. Heck, even someone like JoJo Romero could potentially be moved to a hopeful contender.

I think most fans agree that the club's inability to successfully offload some of their veterans in order to bring back value for the future of the club has been a big miss thus far. Ownership seems far more preoccupied with shedding significant payroll than acquiring prospects for the future, and yet, the market seems to be in a place that would put the Cardinals in a strong seller's position with some of their players.

I do think there is an argument for some of these players that holding onto them for now is the best move for the future of the club and value they could get later.

Here are 2 players the Cardinals are going to regret holding onto this offseason, and 1 they'll be thankful that they did

The Cardinals will regret holding onto Nolan Arenado

First, yes, of course the Cardinals want to get rid of Arenado, so if they could have by now, they would. Still, it doesn't remove the fact that they'll regret the position they are in later if he cannot find a new destination soon.

No, I'm not advocating that the Cardinals just get rid of Arenado no matter the cost. They don't need to do something crazy and attach valuable assets to him in order to move him, or eat a majority of his contract without getting anything in return. Still, having him on the roster in 2025 (and potentially beyond) is not ideal for their long-term plans.

Arenado was still a valuable player in 2024, and he could repeat that again next season or even rebound to higher levels of performance, but there's also the risk that he continues to decline, and if that's the case, then they would basically be stuck with Arenado moving forward.

Allowing players like Nolan Gorman, Brendan Donovan, Thomas Saggese, and Alec Burleson (who would be most directly impacted by kepeing Arenado) need to play as much as possible next year. Finding out what you have in those players means a lot for this team's aspirations in 2026 and beyond, and that's the priority right now.