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St. Louis Cardinals: Cards need to trade for Nolan Arenado!
The Colorado Rockies’ superstar third baseman recently made comments showing his displeasure with the perennial losing in Denver. Pull the trigger, St. Louis Cardinals!
Nolan Arenado is fed up with losing, as any player of his caliber would be. He made several comments voicing his concern with the organization (read all them here). He is obviously unhappy with the direction of the Rockies, and the St. Louis Cardinals would be a great landing spot!
This particular comment is the most interesting to me, “We can talk about it all we want. We’ve been talking about this since April. How are we going to turn it around? Blah blah. We haven’t yet.”
It’s clear he wants the team to make some moves to improve their chances of winning and getting to the playoffs on a regular basis.
He also made a comment stating that he knows their front office is in an awkward position. The Rockies are six games back in the National League West and four games back in the Wild Card race. He stated, “Hopefully we can put the pressure on them to go get guys. The more we win, the more they’re going to have to make a move.”
What if they don’t win? What if they really struggle leading up to the trade deadline? Could he be part of a blockbuster deal with the Cardinals?
More from Redbird Rants
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- How do the St. Louis Cardinals stack up with Willson Contreras?
- Cardinals: The insane asking price the Athletics had for Sean Murphy
I don’t think anyone could argue that he would be a huge addition to the St. Louis Cardinals lineup. He’s won four straight Gold Gloves at third base. He currently has a .974 OPS. He had OPS’ of .932 and .959 in 2016 and 2017, respectively. He just keeps getting better at the plate.
While he clearly has benefited from playing half his games at Coors Field (his career OPS at home is .973 compared to .794 on the road), he has become a much better hitter away from Colorado in the past four years. Since 2015, his OPS’ on the road are .835, .832, .886, and it’s .841 so far this year. His home run totals on the road since 2015 are 22, 16, 18, and 8 so far this season. The power is real, no matter where he’s playing.
He would become that bona fide superstar the St. Louis Cardinals have lacked since Albert Pujols left. He would slide right into the three-hole in the lineup, moving others into spots they are more suited for.
It would definitely cost the St. Louis Cardinals a lot to acquire him. He would not be a rental. St. Louis would have him through 2019. He becomes a free agent in 2020. After playing with the team and in front of the St. Louis Cardinals’ fans for one and a half seasons, I think we would have a really good chance of re-signing him.
He’s only 27, so he’ll turn 29 in 2020. If he continues to play like he has been so far in his career, he would probably command about $30 million per year for at least five seasons. While this is a few years away, I think it’s a price the St. Louis Cardinals could pay and should be willing to pay, especially if he’s as successful in St. Louis as I think he would be.
There is no sugarcoating it – the trade package to acquire him would have to be enormous. Many of our top prospects would have to be included. Their ERA is 29th in baseball, so I would guess they would want several of our top pitching prospects. Dakota Hudson, Jack Flaherty, or Austin Gomber would have to go. Two of them might have to go.
Another factor that the St. Louis Cardinals’ front office should consider in this deal: the fans would be happy! Yes, they traded for Marcell Ozuna in the off-season. It wasn’t enough. The rival Milwaukee Brewers traded for Christian Yelich and signed Lorenzo Cain. While some fans would still find a reason to complain, it would be hard for most to say that the front office isn’t trying to make the team into a perennial World Series contender.
Next: Trade proposal for the Royals
So, as we get closer to the trade deadline at the end of July, let’s all hope the Colorado Rockies are losing! Do you guys think it would be worth it? Would the Cardinals front office pull the trigger on this one? Let me know. Thanks for reading.