One team finally decided to try to be the best in NL Central.
The Cardinals were on the verge of acquiring Nolan Arenado of the Rockies on Friday night. Because $ 50 million would move from Colorado to St. Louis. Louis and because Arenado would win an additional waiver option after the 2022 season in addition to the one he has after the 2021 season, the transaction will have to be approved by MLB and the Players Association. The hope is that it could be done by Sunday or Monday and the trade could be completed.
If so, it would mark the first significant import of talent into NL Central after three months of an off-season in which talent was flowing only abroad.
Josh Bell, Yu Darvish, Raisel Iglesias, Jon Lester, Joe Musgrove, Jose Quintana, Kyle Schwarber, Jameson Taillon and probably at some point soon Trevor Bauer left NL Central. By Friday, when Adam Wainwright signed back with the Cardinals and Joc Pederson agreed to a deal with the Cubs, the entire division combined to spend less than $ 3 million on the free agency. The Reds have yet to sign a free agent in the major leagues and Wainwright was the first by the Cardinals.
But now St. Louis was on the verge of a seismic movement. The Cardinals would have sent five prospects to the Rocky Mountains – but none of their elite minor leagues. Arenado has $ 199 million in debt for the next six years and, as reported by MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, will receive an additional $ 15 million for the seventh year if the transaction is completed.
There is risk beyond money. Arenado already had the right to give up his contract after the 2021 season and now he has the same after 2022 and there has always been a feeling at stake that he would like to find a way to his Southern California roots. Louis, however, is a crazy city of baseball and players often fall in love with playing in front of such a positive fan base for a regular competitor.
For now, Arenado is a winner if the transaction goes ahead because it gets rid of a toxic situation in Colorado. He signed an eight-year extension, with 260 million dollars, after the 2018 season. He believed that the Rocky Mountains are not only committed to him, but also to try to be perennial competitors. So, Arenado became frustrated when the team did not continue to invest in salaries to pursue better players. He got into a fight with GM Jeff Bridich and it became clear that he wanted a divorce.
In the shortened 2020 schedule, Arenado had his worst season, hitting .253 with a .738 OPS while struggling with an injured shoulder. The Cardinals would have bet that it was an aberration and that Arenado is the player who finished in the top eight in the 2015-19 NV MVP vote. Even last year, he won the eighth gold glove in eight years, as he established himself as one of the best third bassists in history.
For the Rockies, they give up on their franchise. They send so much money to the Cardinals to get rid of the burden of the contract, potentially open space to keep Trevor Story short, who is a free agent after the 2021 season and essentially buys prospects, which he expects to include pitcher Austin Gomber, the first base Luken Baker and field Jhon Torres.
There are tones in this agreement until the Mariners changed Giancarlo Stanton to the Yankees after the 2017 season. Both Stanton and Arenado are represented by Joel Wolfe. Both signed mega-contracts to stay with the team that drafted them in the second round. Both have become disappointed with organizations that will not continue to push after signing them. The Cardinals actually drafted a deal for Stanton, but he invoked his ban clause and, like Arenado, hoped to get to his Southern California roots with the Dodgers.
Stanton accepted a transaction with the Yankees, which extracted $ 52 million in savings from Marlin, who ate $ 30 million and took over the remaining $ 22 million from the Starlin Castro contract.
This time it was in the books for St. Louis to land this type of star that seeks to escape a deteriorating situation.