Most offseason reports suggest that Nolan Arenado is eager to leave St. Louis, with the Boston Red Sox being his top choice for a new team. However, the question remains: how urgent is Arenado’s desire to move on from the Cardinals?
“It’s not like he’s begging to leave,” Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said at a media event over the weekend, via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
DeWitt then acknowledged it might be best for both the team and Arenado, who holds a no-trade clause in his contract, to find a new home for the star third baseman.
“There are two things there,” DeWitt was quoted as saying. “One is we would prefer to go with younger players, and Nolan, himself, if he can find the right opportunity I think would prefer to play with a team that — on paper at least in whatever view — has got a top chance of being a World Series champion.
“But, having said that, that’s not so easy to find. A, the team that you have that much confidence in going to, and B, he likes it here. … But, I think it would be good for him if he could find one of those teams that everybody has the best chance, top chance of winning a championship this year.”
Ultimately, DeWitt won’t complain if Arenado begins the season on St Louis’ roster.
“He’s a Hall of Fame-type player,” DeWitt told Goold. “We’re happy to have had him, and we’ll be happy in the future if he stays.”
Arenado, who’ll turn 34 in April, hit .272 with 16 homers and a .719 OPS in 152 games last season.
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