5 new teams Cardinals' Nolan Arenado could consider a trade to as he expands his list

Philadelphia Phillies

For years now, the Philadelphia Phillies have seemed like a dark horse fit to acquire Arenado's services. We all know how aggressive Dave Dombrowski is, and he sure does like to acquire names, so maybe this is the winter that they get involved in some Arenado talks.

The Phillies are in a very weird spot entering this offseason. They are an aging team that is all-in right now and have three significant pieces in Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, and Ranger Suarez, who are all hitting free agency. Not only that, but Zach Wheeler's career is in jeopardy right now due to thoracic outlet surgery. They are going to need to be very creative this offseason to improve their ballclub.

Alec Bohm, the Phillies' current third baseman, is one of the worst defensively at the position in the game today, and he's only slightly above league average at the plate this year. Bohm is a guy who has had some great stretches in his career, and while they could roll with him as their third baseman next year in the final year of club control, they could look to use him as trade bait to improve their roster.

While Arenado is owed a ton of money right now, the Phillies would likely be able to acquire him at a very low payroll number, which would allow them to allocate dollars and assets elsewhere, rather than paying a pretty penny to upgrade their defense and possibly offense at third base.

While some baseball executives, like John Mozeliak, for example, tend to avoid complicated situations, Dombrowski is not afraid of them, and I could totally see him flipping Bohm for value elsewhere and taking a flyer on Arenado to improve their club.

Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat floated out the idea of swapping Arenado for Nick Castellanos, a move that could be beneficial to the Phillies to move off of Castellanos' money, but I'm not sure the Cardinals would be open to that. Bloom could look to then flip Castellanos to another team or possibly let him rebuild value and trade him at the deadline. That deal would save the Cardinals money on Arenado since Castellanos is in the final year of his contract.