CONFIRMED: Cardinals to Trade 8-Time All-Star During MLB Winter Meetings

The St. Louis Cardinals head into the second day of the Winter Meetings with plenty of work still ahead. Chaim Bloom has already begun reshaping the roster, kicking things off by sending Sonny Gray to the Boston Red Sox.

Next on the list of potential trade candidates are Brendan Donovan, Willson Contreras, JoJo Romero, Lars Nootbaar, and possibly Nolan Arenado. The Cardinals have been exploring trade options for Arenado since last offseason.

Once again, one of the major questions of the winter is whether the team will move their star third baseman. Mike Axisa of CBS Sports recently offered a prediction on a potential deal and shared his perspective on the situation.

“It does seem inevitable, doesn’t it? St. Louis had a farewell ceremony for Nolan Arenado in their final home game, signaling their intention. The Cardinals paid down $20 million to trade Sonny Gray to the Red Sox last week. Surely they’re willing to eat money to move Arenado, whom they owe $37 million over the next two seasons,” Axisa writes.

Arenado had his worst offensive season to date, hitting just .237/.289/.377 with 12 home runs, 52 RBI and a .666 OPS. He also missed over a month with an injury.

At this point, the Cardinals are going to have to eat some more money to make an Arenado trade happen and get a good return. But if they were willing to do that with Gray, they should be willing to do it with Arenado.

The 34-year-old third baseman wants to play for a contending team, and the Cardinals aren’t going to be a contender for a couple of years. He has two years left on his contract with St. Louis.

Trading Arenado is the organization’s top priority this winter, and if the Cardinals can do that, then they can move forward with their rebuild and bring back some solid young players.

But it’s in their best interest to move Arenado, and it’s also best for Arenado to go and play for a contender rather than sit through two years of a rebuild.

Still, it will be interesting to see what happens at the Winter Meetings. It might take a while for Arenado to be moved because of the third base market, but the Cardinals should be able to get it done this winter.