Former Cardinal Nolan Arenado is on fire at the plate as he leads Diamondbacks playoff push

The Nolan Arenado era needed to end in St. Louis this past winter (honestly, it needed to happen a year earlier), but he's certainly turned back the clock as of late as the Arizona Diamondbacks fight for a postseason berth.

Arenado has been on fire with Arizona as of late, posting a 1.131 OPS in 20 games as they fight tooth and nail to claim the final Wild Card spot with just a few games left this season.

Arenado has had a major bounce-back year with the Diamondbacks, slashing .254/.326/.469 with 29 home runs and 83 RBI in 149 games played. His 117 wRC+ is the best mark of his career since 2022 and would have been his second-best season as a Cardinal. This has caused some to wonder whether it was a mistake letting him go when the Cardinals have a huge hole at third base right now.

The Cardinals were right to part ways with Arenado, but it is interesting to think about why he's been so much better this year, and it's easy to see that getting away from Busch Stadium has been a major factor.

Getting away from Busch Stadium seems to have helped former Cardinal Nolan Arenado

What is wild about Arenado's offensive production this year is that, for how much better it is on the back of the baseball card compared to his final season with the Cardinals, his expected numbers have actually mostly been worse this season.

Well, Busch Stadium is one of the most pitcher-friendly ballparks in the sport, and while this year it has been especially hard to hit there, it's been that way for quite some time.

Chase Field, on the other hand, is the third-most hitter-friendly ballpark in the sport this year, and even more so favors right-handed hitters (106 park factor for RHH this year). Arenado gets to benefit from playing half of his games there, and two other teams in the NL West (Colorado and Los Angeles) also are very kind to right-handed hitters.

Flipping over to the NL Central, only Cincinnati is not included in the 10 hardest ballparks for right-handed hitters to find production. While ballparks are not everything, they certainly play a role.

Arenado's resurgence is likely to do with more than that, and I can see how him playing on a team with real postseason expectations may have rejuvenated him as well. He's not the face of the team either, so the pressure it's quite as high on Arenado to produce each night.

I'm personally happy to see Arenado finding success with Arizona this year. He deserves to have more good years at the plate and in the field, and I hated to see how things were ending in St. Louis. If the Diamondbacks can squeak into the postseason, both Arenado and Lars Nootbaar could help lead Arizona on a fun postseason run. We all wish that could have happened with St. Louis, but it would be cool to see them still experience that elsewhere.

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