Cardinals fans see all-too-familiar sights in former players' spring showings

When Miles Mikolas departed the St. Louis Cardinals via free agency this past offseason, not many tears were shed from the Cardinal faithful. Mikolas, who had spent the last eight years (seven seasons due to an injury in 2020), left the Cardinals on as low of a note as possible. He joined the Washington Nationals in search of a new start in the twilight of his career.

While Mikolas was a reliable innings eater from 2018 through 2022 for the Cardinals, he was a detriment to the rotation from 2023 through 2025. In those three seasons, he made every single start and threw an average of more than 176 innings a season. His ERA, however, skyrocketed to 4.98 over those three seasons, and he was ineffective as a starter for many of his outings at this point.

Third baseman Nolan Arenado's departure was far more bittersweet. Chaim Bloom finally found a willing trade partner for the future Hall of Fame third baseman, and Arenado was sent to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for pitching prospect Jack Martinez.

Arenado's offense had fallen every season since 2022, and he was a below-average hitter by the time he was traded. While his defense was still Gold Glove-worthy, his subpar bat and spot on the roster no longer fit with what the Cardinals as an organization were trying to do.

It was only a matter of time before Cardinals fans began seeing clips of these two veterans show up on social media and in the news, but the results that fans got were all too familiar.

Former St. Louis Cardinals Nolan Arenado and Miles Mikolas show fans all-too-familiar sights in their first outings of spring training.

In Miles Mikolas's first appearance as a Washington National, outfielder Dylan Crews took him deep for a home run, a sight that St. Louis Cardinals fans got to know quite well over the last few years.

Abimelec Ortiz, a 23-year-old from Puerto Rico who has not played above Triple-A yet, took Mikolas deep in the next at-bat as well. Outfielder James Wood came up to bat against Mikolas third and hit a double, and Crews came back up once again and doubled himself off Mikolas. Four extra base hits, two of which were home runs, off Miles Mikolas is poetic given his final few years in St. Louis.

On the other side of the spectrum, Nolan Arenado is adjusting quite well to his new digs in Arizona.

On Friday afternoon, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, Arenado's original organization, faced off in one of the first spring training games of the year. Arenado took starting pitcher Anthony Senzatela deep to left-center field for his first home run in a D-Backs uniform.

Arenado's offense had fallen off over his final three years in St. Louis, but seeing him pull a ball to left field was always something that would bring a smile to fans' faces. It's only fitting that he goes deep in his first spring outing with his new team.

The Cardinals have several former players spread throughout the league following their reset this offseason. It will certainly be interesting to keep up with Mikolas, Arenado, Brendan Donovan, Willson Contreras, and Sonny Gray.