Nolan Arenado's no-trade clause hurt the Cardinals until the very end

At long last, the Chaim Bloom and the St. Louis Cardinals were able to find a satisfactory destination for Nolan Arenado, who was sent to the Arizona Diamondbacks (alongside a lot of money) in exchange for pitching prospect Jack Martinez.

It was an underwhelming return — especially since the Redbirds ate so much of his remaining salary — but it needed to happen. Following trades of Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras, the full-scale rebuild the Cardinals had been delaying under John Mozeliak's watch is finally in full swing, with Arenado representing the final core piece that needed to be offloaded this offseason.

However, it turns out that the Diamondbacks' offer wasn't necessarily the best on the table.

Nolan Arenado nixed another Cardinals trade before being sent to Arizona.

Infamously, Arenado wielded the full powers of his no-trade clause to veto a trade to the Houston Astros last winter. That's well within his right as a player with such a clause attached to his contract, but it did complicate matters in terms of finding realistic trade partners.

It was known that Arenado — who began his career with the Colorado Rockies — wanted to be sent back out west if St. Louis were to deal him. Hence, Houston didn't quite fit the bill, and most assumed one of the AL or NL West teams would emerge as the favorites.

The Diamondbacks proved to be the team that fulfilled that prophecy, but, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, they weren't the Cardinals' preferred suitor. Instead, they and the Athletics had agreed to a deal in principle that would send Arenado to Sacramento... but the third baseman again refused to accept his new home.

"The A’s would have absorbed more money than the Diamondbacks, who will pay Arenado $11 million of the $42 million he is owed the next two seasons, with his previous club, the St. Louis Cardinals, picking up the rest," Rosenthal wrote. "But Arenado indicated he would not necessarily approve a trade to the A’s, a person familiar with his thinking said. He preferred the Diamondbacks or Padres."

It's unclear what they A's were offering in return — likely a prospect or two — but the fact that they were willing to take on more money than Arizona proves their desire to add Arenado. It probably wouldn't have been substantially better than what the Diamondbacks gave the Cardinals, but it's not hard to imagine that Bloom and company had to settle for a less-than-ideal package thanks to Arenado's whims.

The saga is over now, and there's nothing to be done about a legendary player utilizing a power that the team granted him in a previous contract extension. Still, for those that feel disappointed by how this all ended, it's clear who was really steering the ship.