John Mozeliak’s attempt to save face with Nolan Arenado isn’t fooling anybody
When the 2024 regular season came to an end, John Mozeliak made it abundantly clear that the offseason was going to be different for the St. Louis Cardinals. Instead of doing whatever they can to try and compete for a World Series win, the Cardinals were instead going to prioritize their younger players receiving plenty of playing time and saving money.
In order for this plan to come into fruition, the Cardinals would stay away from adding veterans in free agency or in trades, while also letting older free agents like Paul Goldschmidt, Kyle Gibson, and Lance Lynn depart and trading away at least some of the veterans they have on their roster. The Cardinals have not made any major additions and let their own free agents walk, but, despite doing seemingly whatever they could to trade Nolan Arenado, they’ve been unable to do so.
If we’re being completely honest, it isn’t fully Mozeliak’s fault that an Arenado deal hasn’t gone through yet. Arenado vetoed a deal that would’ve sent him to the Houston Astros earlier this offseason, and, according to Mozeliak, doesn’t have many teams he’d be willing to even get traded to.
Now, with spring training underway, Mozeliak has come to grips with the fact that Arenado is likely going to be on St. Louis’ Opening Day roster. Rather than focus on the failure to find an Arenado trade, Mozeliak attempted to save face. It’s safe to say his attempt is not going to work.
“I would not bet against him; I’d bet on him,” Mozeliak said of Arenado. “And I was afraid someone else was going to get that if we traded him. He’s a special player, and he can still do things that many can’t.”
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Cardinals fans aren’t fooled by John Mozeliak’s attempt to save face
After a winter of publicly doing whatever he could to trade Arenado, Mozeliak went as far as to say he would not bet against him and that he was afraid of him bouncing back elsewhere had he traded him. Well, if that’s the case, why bother shopping him at all?
Arenado is coming off arguably his worst season at the MLB level. He slashed .272/.325/.394 with 16 home runs and 71 RBI. He was still a Gold Glove-caliber defender at the hot corner, and wasn’t bad at the plate, but having a massive down year as a 33-year-old isn’t ideal. Arenado still has three expensive years on his contract. It isn’t hard to see why teams are reluctant to trade for him with the Cardinals wanting to shed most of the contract.
With his value being as low as it is, it would make no sense for the Cardinals to trade him if Mozeliak really felt as if he had a bounce-back year in him. Waiting for that bounce back would increase his value, making him far easier to trade. Obviously, Mozeliak is not going to bash a player currently on his roster, but Cardinals fans can see right through this.
Hopefully Arenado does have a bounce back year and proves his doubters (Mozeliak included) wrong, allowing the Cardinals to eventually trade him for an acceptable return. That’d be pretty cool to see, even if the 2025 campaign isn’t an exciting one for St. Louis.
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