John Mozeliak voices regret with how he's handled Nolan Arenado trade talks

Rarely does St. Louis Cardinals' president of baseball operations John Mozeliak comment on specific trade talks or free agent negotiations, but he did earlier this offseason in regard to Nolan Arenado.

Back at the Winter Meetings, Mozeliak confirmed to reporters that the club had every intention of moving Arenado in a trade that offseason, and then Arenado's agent, Joel Wolfe, confirmed that plan and was discussing openly Arenado's willingness to play elsewhere.

Since then, Arenado has rejected a trade to the Houston Astros and his trade market seems to be at a complete standstill. Mozeliak's confidence that a deal could get done by Christmas has not only produced false hope, but now it's a real possibility that Arenado is not moved this offseason.

John Mozeliak expressed regret in how he spoke publicly about trading Nolan Arenado

On KMOX's "Countdown to Opening Day" with Matt Pauley and Mike Claiborne, Mozeliak commented on the situation, and sounded regretful in how he handled the speculation back at the Winter Meetings.

"At the time, I thought, pretty confidently, we had a deal in place and we were likely going to move him," said Mozeliak. "Here we are a month later and obviously that didn't happen. Maybe had I known what I know today, I might not have spoken as I had that night. But what I said was what I said and we have to live with that."

It is unclear whether or not the deal they thought they had in place was with Houston or another club, but clearly, Mozeliak thought it was close enough that they could begin informing the public that Arenado would be elsewhere soon, but instead, things either fell apart or stalled and now there is real question as to whether or not they'll be able to move Arenado.

Mozeliak was clear in this interview that the Cardinals believe Arenado is a valuable player, so they are not going to just give him away for free or eat so much money that they'd rather just be the team that gets value from him.

It's a different situation, but it does remind me of Mozeliak confirming publicly that the Cardinals planned to move Tyler O'Neill during last offseason. Like Arenado, it seemed clear to the industry that that was the Cardinals' intention, but outright confirming that to the media seems like a recipe to kill or significantly harm a player's trade value. Comments like that let every team know that the player needs to go, and it takes away the leverage that a team can have that they may hold that player.

Unlike O'Neill, the Cardinals do seem to be serious that they could hold onto Arenado if the offers aren't there, but clearly they would like to get a deal done between now and Spring Training, preferably as soon as possible, so they can free up playing time for young bats and get to their other offseason objectives.

It will be interesting to see if Mozeliak is able to pull of a trade in the near future, or if Arenado and the club will have to settle for status quo. It does not sound like the relationship has been strained at all, but both sides would prefer a fresh start.