5 Cardinals who are negatively affected by Nolan Arenado staying with the team

Nolan Arenado, at least for now, remains a St. Louis Cardinal. The 10-time Gold Glove winner reported to spring training in Jupiter, Florida, and he will at least start the 2025 season with the Cardinals.

After several attempts by team president of baseball operations John Mozeliak to find a trade partner for Arenado, it became abundantly clear after Alex Bregman signed with the Boston Red Sox that Arenado's home for 2025 would once again be in St. Louis. There remains a chance he's traded during spring training or at the July trade deadline, but for right now, Nolan Arenado will be a Cardinal.

This is a good thing. Objectively speaking, the Cardinals are a better team with Arenado starting at third base. Having a future Hall of Famer who is still younger than 35 on your team is a good thing. The team's defense gets a boost with him at the hot corner, and there's always a chance that he can tap into his slugging prowess that he put on display throughout his first 10 years in the league.

There is a clear trickle-down effect on the rest of the roster now that Nolan Arenado remains with the Cardinals. The organization's desire to lean into a youth movement is stalled at least, barring any major injuries. Lars Nootbaar, Jordan Walker, and Nolan Gorman will continue to be players who will be featured when it comes to development at the major league level. Brendan Donovan, Masyn Winn, and Willson Contreras will be regulars along with Arenado. That leaves very few spots for several young players.

Some of these logjams can and will be alleviated due to injuries. Last year, the Cardinals experienced injuries to Dylan Carlson and Lars Nootbaar in spring, thus opening up opportunities for Michael Siani and Victor Scott II. Willson Contreras was up and down all year in terms of health, so extended looks were given to Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages. The same could happen this year, and this conversation would become moot.

However, in a world without injuries, manager Oli Marmol's chance to give reps to young players is now limited due to Arenado's presence on the roster. While this isn't innately a bad thing, it doesn't help with the organization's desire to enter in a youth movement and test their prospects and younger players.

Let's also be clear here: Nolan Arenado will not be benched. He will not be relegated to a reserve role. He's still an above-average defender with the potential to have a plus bat. Those types of players who give teams the assurance that Nado doesn't grow on trees.

For now, the youth movement will be stalled, and that will affect several prospects in 2025. Players who could use 300 or more plate appearances this year may struggle to find them. They could be demoted to Triple-A Memphis or left to rot on the bench until an opportunity comes their way.

I cannot take full credit for this idea. While I had been ruminating on which players will now be losing time as a result of Nolan Arenado staying in St. Louis, Katie Woo and Trevor Rosenthal discussed these players specifically on the latest episode of Cardinal Territory. There are no surprise players, so I wanted to take a deeper look into how each is going to lose playing time.

These 5 players for the St. Louis Cardinals will be negatively affected by the return of third baseman Nolan Arenado