Red Sox insider's post changes tone on Cardinals' dead Nolan Arenado rumors

The Nolan Arenado trade saga took a few years (and a veto) to resolve, though it all came to an end when the St. Louis Cardinals finally shipped him to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for Jack Martinez back in January.

There are discussions to be had about the quality of the return and the legacy Arenado left in St. Louis, but it was an important step in the rebuild the Cardinals embarked on this winter under Chaim Bloom. No matter what form it took, someone was going to take the third baseman off their hands.

However, it appears that an alternative to the Diamondbacks trade may have actually been on the table; Boston Globe writer Tim Healey casually dropped a remark that Arenado was "almost" a Red Sox player while the 10-time Gold Glover chatted with Boston's president of baseball operations Craig Breslow.

We know the Sox were involved to some extent in the Arenado market, and they obviously established a strong trade rapport with Bloom this winter, having secured deals for Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras. But did things really progress as far as Healey makes it sound?

Nolan Arenado was apparently almost a Red Sox before trade to Diamondbacks

One reason to be dubious about this is Arenado himself; it was frequently reported that he favored a return to the West Coast, a sentiment he's shared since arriving in Arizona. Boston is obviously about as far east as you can get in this country, and certainly even less geographically appealing than Houston was to Arenado.

Then again, the chance to play with Gray and Contreras again probably appealed to him. Perhaps he signed off on a deal to the Red Sox if the teams could agree on the parameters of a deal, but the Diamondbacks came in with a better offer (or were willing to take on more money) when the final buzzer sounded. It's impossible to say without more reporting, but perhaps Arenado truly was "almost" the Red Sox's new third baseman.

In the end, this what-if situation ended up resolving itself. The Sox acquired Caleb Durbin from the Milwaukee Brewers to serve as their starter at the hot corner, while Arenado returns to the NL West with a chance to do what he never could with the Rockies: dethrone the Dodgers.

The Cardinals, meanwhile, offloaded all of their key veteran trade chips as they anticipate a few lean years of rebuilding before their next competitive era.