Cardinals president gets honest about Nolan Arenado predicament

The St. Louis Cardinals find themselves in a predicament concerning Nolan Arenado ahead of the 2025 season. There were speculations about Arenado's trade to the Boston Red Sox. However, on Wednesday, those doors were shut after the Red Sox signed third baseman Alex Bregman to a three-year, $120 million deal.

The problem with Arenado's remaining three-year, $64 million contract with the Cardinals is his no-trade clause. This has been troublesome for the organization to find a team for Arenado and then expect him to waive the clause. While Arenado reportedly was convinced to move to Boston, the option no longer remains.

So heading into the 2025 Opening Day, Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak will have no choice but to have Arenado playing third base after he once said that the offseason priority for the club was to trade him.

Mozeliak let his feelings out given the predicament the club finds itself in.

“I definitely feel like it's a better chance than not. ... I think right now the mindset has to be that Nolan Arenado is our third baseman,” Mozeliak said on Thursday.

“We thought all along that we could probably do something this offseason, but it just hasn’t happened," Mozeliak added. "I think you can determine on your own why it might not be happening: due to the free agent market or it could be who's available on the free-agent market. I imagine there’s a direct correlation there, but ultimately I do not have a large list of teams.

Mozeliak reflected on the lack of offers for the veteran slugger:

"It wasn't like 29 I could take him to. So I just tried to navigate what I could work with, and obviously it hasn’t moved at the pace many of us had hoped for.”

John Mozeliak expresses uncertainty if something were to happen with Nolan Arenado

On Wednesday, after the first day of pre-season workouts, John Mozeliak addressed the elephant in the room. He acknowledged that despite their best efforts they will still check if they can make something happen concerning trading Nolan Arenado in the next week or so.

“Obviously, the pink elephant in the room is what are we going to do with Nolan Arenado,” Mozeliak said Wednesday. “Candidly, we’re still looking at what that might look like and could something happen in the next week? Possibly. Could this go into camp? Possibly. So I don’t really have like a definitive answer.”

While Arenado's resume includes eight All-Star selections and 10-time Gold Glove wins, his slugging took a hit last season with only16 home runs. He hopes to return to his old form and change the narrative around him.