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I didn’t clarify, Taylor is still a FA or a signing didn’t make the news?
He should have gotten a chance in September, that would have been better to watch vs Mikolas….I don’t believe that Taylor has yet signed for 2026 after becoming a free agent after the World Series.
The only reason I can think of to DFA Arenado would be to free up a roster spot if they sign some major leaguers or want to open another slot for the Rule 5 draft. I personally don’t think they will or should, but time will tell. I agree with the thought that trading Arenado will happen after several other options come off the board, maybe right before ST.
They are not DFAing Arenado. Whoever made that up is trying way too hard to lose credibility. There are plenty of options to cut loose over him.
According to Fangraphs, there were only four third basemen that performed worse than Nolan Arenado in 2025 (minimum 350 PAs):
– Mark Vientos – New York Mets
– Brooks Lee – Minnesota Twins
– Luis Rengifo – Los Angeles Angels
– Nolan Gorman – St. Louis CardinalsI only see the Angels as a possible fit for Arenado besides the Cardinals, and Bloom is going to have to entice the Angels to make a trade.
Might have to take on a mutual dump contract. If it shortens our club control commitment, I guess that’s a win.
It’s been a while ago (month or so) that I saw an idea of bad salary dump of Arenado to the Mets for Sean Manaea. They would have to cover some of his salary, but I definitely don’t dislike that idea. We can throw in Pallante to get the deal done!
They might as well at least shoot for 81 wins….
Ponce, May, Manaea, Libby, McGreevy and Dickey Fitts at least gives them a little hope…..
The Cardinals are not going to DFA Arenado. He will either be traded or he will play 3B.
I would say there is a 90% chance he is traded. What will be interesting to see is how much he has expanded his list of teams he would accept a trade to. As LACard mentioned a good fit for him would be the Angels. I would think they would love to have him as their 3B and that is his hometown of course. The fly in the ointment obviously is that the Angels are not a contender.
Honest question. Where is Arenado’s wife from?
“Going home” is a common justification when it aligns with trade and free agency rumors, but it almost never comes into play a$ much a$ other factor$.
For the Cards, I heard it for years with Buehrle and later with Max.
She’s from Laguna Beach. One of the reasons Arenado cited for wanting more time to consider the Houston trade last year was that they had a newborn.
And money won’t be the deciding factor for Arenado. He will be paid the remaining two year of his contract by three different teams (Rockies, Cardinals, TBD). The question is how adamant he is to playing for a contender. My assumption is that most contending teams probably aren’t lining up to trade for him so if he wants to leave STL then he may need to adjust his expectations. Playing where you live might be a nice consolation prize for playing for a non-contender.
At the end of the season Nado said he didn’t want another off-season like the last one he just had. He’s had a year to adjust, chart a new path and consider every destination.
The NTC has value which he isn’t going to just give away to be nice. Its business. Its unlikely he will be going to a contender, so why would he just give it away to go somewhere else? Besides maybe the Angels near his home. He might as well just ride it out in STL unless someone is going to buy out the NTC. That puts STL in an awkward situation.
COT’s currently has the Cardinals payroll at $97.5M. (Gray’s 20 is included in that) If they can take another 10 million off the books from getting rid of Arenado and 10 from Donovan and Jojo that puts them at only $77M….
I don’t recall where I saw this, but supposedly Bloom made a comment at some point that he expected payroll to be somewhere around what it was last year which was anywhere between 125 and 130. So let’s call it 127 to make the math easy. That is 50 million that they could be spending.
Is there any reason they can’t add a one year starter with upside and someone like Cody Ponce for 3+ an option for roughly 20M, a RH RF and some LH flippable bullpen arms and still be under that number?
How is that unreasonable? At all? And especially after their welfare payment.Fact: People are creatures of habit, and if they start not going to games or tuning into games because of the Cardinals being so sad/pathetic, they’re going to spend their time and money doing other things versus caring about the Cardinals and then get used to doing other things long term.
Trying to be so cheap/horrible is not the right long term answer.Willson Contreras is open to trade offers and has become more willing to waive his full no-trade clause for the right fit, multiple league sources told The Athletic.
From the same article:
St. Louis has established a clear line of offseason priorities. None is more pressing than trading Nolan Arenado, but that’s far easier said than done. The Cardinals are committed to increasing roster flexibility and are actively listening on their left-handed hitters. Brendan Donovan continues to garner the most interest, but rival clubs are also engaged on Lars Nootbaar and Nolan Gorman, to a lesser extent.
And finally:
Multiple team sources agree that trading Arenado will be the most difficult endeavor of the offseason.
One aspect that has changed is ownership’s willingness to include money in a deal, as evidenced by the Gray trade.
Perhaps Bloom was able to explain the concept of sunk costs to DeWitt.
Here are the “tradeable draft picks”. As of 12/02/25 the Cards have the 8th and 32nd pick. If the Cards cut down Arenado’s liability to $13.5(1.5 WAR)in 2025 and $9(1 WAR)in 2026 trading for a draft pick/pool money and international pool $ might be a good move for both sides… Several teams on this list actually make sense.
Round A:
Guardians
Royals
D-backs
Cardinals (32nd currently)
Orioles
Pirates
RockiesRound B:
Brewers
Mariners
Tigers
Reds
Marlins
Rays
A’s
TwinsCFiCT’s dream of Cody Ponce is no more…he’s signing with the Jays.
Right-hander Cody Ponce and the Toronto Blue Jays are finalizing a three-year, $30 million contract, pending physical, sources tell ESPN. The AL champs get the KBO MVP, who went 17-1 with a 1.89 ERA and struck out 252 in 180.2 innings. First on the agreement was @Ken_Rosenthal .
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 2, 2025
The following teams are all in the market for 3B according to Google AI and have comp round B picks.
Round B: (Likely picks in the 70-80 range)
Brewers
Mariners
TigersArenado projections on FG avg out to 1.9WAR in 2026 actually. If the Cards paid down his salary to 13.5M in 2026 and 9M in 2027. Would they be able to get one of these picks in a trade or am I way off?
If Arenado were on the market, I would imagine that he would get a deal similar to what Goldschmidt got last year. One year and around $12-15M. He has more defensive value than Goldy had and is younger, but is probably not going to be as good with the bat. So the Cards will need to pay his contract down to around that level to move him.
I could see him getting a 2 year 10-12 million contract or 5-6 million per year. Cardinals need to pay about 70-75% of the amount he’s owed to get a lottery prospect, but I assume their main goal is to shed him while saving as much as is possible vs getting any kind of return. They have Donovan, Contreras and Romero to get some more valuable prospects or ready to go major leaguers. I’m excited to see who they get in FA after they trade who they plan to trade. Go Cards!
Very sad about Ponce, but I also understand why he would want to go to a team that was just in the World Series, not a team that will be rebuilding while he’s still in his prime to an extent.
My guess, if Arenado were a free agent would be around two and 20 million. That’s basically expecting him to put up around 2.2WAR which I do believe he is still capable of.
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