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The only advantage of taking back a bad contract vs DFA is that the bad contract you receive might not be attached to a NTC thus might be able to be moved for a lottery ticket prospect. I wouldn’t do it though. If they are going to trade him they should just eat whatever is required and try to get some kind of decent prospect back.
And I also think the logical place to trade him is to the Angels. They desperately need a 3B. The obvious drawback is that they are not a contender but perhaps them being close to Arenado’s home would be enough of a consolation.
Bling, consider the trade scenario headlines…
1) Arenado DFA’d with 2/35mil remaining.
2) Arenado and 28mil cash for a lottery ticket in trade.
3) Arenado and 10mil cash for a 1/18mil contract in trade.
“Bill likes to see his money on the field”
Sound familiar? 😀Defending my Arenado for Manaea idea:
The Cards desperately need innings so vs just eating Arenado’s deal the Manaea idea (with them chipping in the difference or a decent prospect) is so they get something they desperately need.
His projection is 100.0 innings and 4.23 ERA in 2026. Heck, that almost makes him the ace!!
May, Libby, Manaea, McGreezy, Fitts and add another lottery ticket or two or three. Then leave Leahy alone and Pallante for blowouts only.
It’s not great but 100% better than Saturday morning!
Contreras, Donnie and Jojo plus $5M for Manaea is roughly another $33m in savings to add lottery tickets.
$103M current payroll (Cots)
-$18 Contreras
-$10 Donnie & Jojo
-$5 Arenado? Manaea trade
$70M Total New Payroll$15 May (guesstimate)
$3 Andujar
$3 Pomeranz
$2 LHRP
$2 LHRP
$10 SP
$10 Another RHH OF
= $45M in additions= $115m new payroll
= $18M less than 2025 plus DeLostHisWallets charity funds.
Disclaimer: My fingers are crossed for four extensions as well.Not sucking can be done, 75 wins could happen.
Re: Manaea:
Trade Donny, Willson and JoJo to get two seasons of a Gray contract back? Good luck with that one.JJ, you shed Arenado’s 19.5 + 15 the Cards owe as well? And they kick in the difference.
I consider it a win since the Cards have to sign at least, bare minimum, one more starter. Hopefully one with upside.
Maybe one that got Cy Young votes in 2024 perhaps?I’m confused what Donnie, Jojo and Contreras have to do with it? They bring back positive value, NA does not unfortunately.
My attitude about Atenado is the same as my attitude about Mo was. There’s no good reason for him to be here anymore. Whatever it takes be gone!
Not sucking can be done, 75 wins could happen.
Other than appeasing players who may be unhappy (which we don’t know…at least in Contreras’ case), I don’t see how your moves don’t end up in a bad team. If they are looking like a 75 win team, they will be trading your acquisitions at the deadline and sinking into the 60s at best for wins anyway.
They could just as easily spend the same amount of money, keep Donovan, Contreras, and Arenado, trade Nootbaar for a 5th starter, sign a righty OF/DH and be pretty much assured to win 70-75 games. But that wouldn’t clear the runway to the future that Chaim envisions, it seems. So most of us have accepted that the vision is 60-65 wins with a bare bones roster, with the hopes that payroll comes back up to $160-175M one day when the core development pipeline has opened back up again.
Am I alone in admiring what Arenado has to offer still? He is still elite defensively. He was top 5 in baseball hitting fastballs 99mph and above. He has always been a great breaking ball hitter.
Had he taken the Houston trade, he would have dramatically improved his counting stats. Playing in St. Louis has seen so many balls to the warning track.
Someone has to go, and he makes the most sense, but there are places he could still provide great value.
Arizona, Boston, Texas, Houston could all see a resurgence. Detroit, LA teams, Seattle should all steer clear.
Get him in the right park and he is still a 3 or even 4 war player and a bargain at his current price.“The Big Picture” section of Brains weekly recap, written by Marilyn, I find to be an outstanding compass for pointing the direction the org is taking with individual players, and their current status.
I will pass on your positive feedback to Marilyn. She does a great job each week summarizing all the news.
Thank you jj-cf-stl. My research chops get a workout in this new Bloom era of Cardinals baseball. Mozeliak’s direction was much easier to predict!
Nigel T – Thanks for posting. I have posted similarly about Arenado but not as thoughtful or as concisely. I’d hate to see him go even though it makes sense. I think if he were traded to a contender, we would see a resurgence in his offense. He could be the missing piece that pushes another team over the top. I don’t know what they will do with Wetherholt if Arenado isn’t traded. But if Arenado stays, I will be happy to see him retire as a Cardinal.
Nigel and Mud, do you believe NA sees a path to winning more than a long shot of a 4th place team in the next two years?
He’s a legend, I agree with that 100%, but he likely wants to go to the playoffs again so take what they can (Manaea or $12-15m) and every person moves on better off for it.
Him being motivated by a contending team could sure help him or anyone for that matter.
I’ll bet a two dollar bill that he said at least 100 times to his inner circle, why didn’t I accept that trade to Houston?
The Cards desperately need innings so vs just eating Arenado’s deal the Manaea idea (with them chipping in the difference or a decent prospect) is so they get something they desperately need.
Isn’t it possible the Cardinals currently covet prospects and payroll savings more than they do covering innings from a guy who costs more than the guy they are trying to get rid of?
GScott,
they should covet getting guys to cover innings so they don’t have to rush Mathews, Henderson, Mautz, etc to STL.High upside guys that can be flipped if they are good AND healthy on 7/30/26 are a building block commodity….. any SP signing, RP signings, Noot, etc
Saw sonething, didnt know where to actually discuss it so figured here. I saw where the angels restructured rendons last year of 38 million to a 3 to 5 year deal. I guess to save money per season and to basically write off rendon. To be honest i had completely forgot about him. He had missed so many games due to injury or maybe him not caring which sometimes he didnt. Seems unlikely he will play again. Just goes to show how fast ypu can go from on top the world to the bottom. He got paid though. Pujols at least had some decent years for the angels and didnt miss a ton of games due to injury. With rendon it seems they just paid him well to sit.
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