No one is fooled by John Mozeliak’s attempt to uplift himself with Nolan Arenado.
John Mozeliak was quite clear at the completion of the 2024 regular season that the St. Louis Cardinals’ summer would be different. Rather of making every effort to contend for a World Series victory, the Cardinals were going to put their younger players’ playing time and financial savings first.
To implement this strategy, the Cardinals would let older free agents like Paul Goldschmidt, Kyle Gibson, and Lance Lynn to go and trade away at least some of their current roster’s veterans while avoiding adding veterans through free agency or trades. The Cardinals have let their own free agents to go free and haven’t made any significant acquisitions, but they haven’t been able to move Nolan Arenado despite apparently trying everything.
The fact that an Arenado deal hasn’t yet been completed isn’t entirely Mozeliak’s fault, if we’re being really honest. Mozeliak claims that Arenado doesn’t have many clubs he would even be willing to be dealt to, and he vetoed a deal earlier this offseason that would have sent him to the Houston Astros.
Now that spring training has begun, Mozeliak has accepted the likelihood that Arenado will be on St. Louis’ Opening Day roster. Mozeliak tried to salvage face rather than dwell on the fact that he couldn’t arrange a deal for Arenado. It’s safe to assume that his endeavor will fail.
Regarding Arenado, Mozeliak stated, “I would wager on him rather than against him.” And I was worried that if we traded him, someone else would receive that. He is a unique player who is still capable of feats that many others cannot.
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Cardinals supporters don’t fall for John Mozeliak’s face-saving tactic.
After publicly trying to transfer Arenado throughout the whole winter, Mozeliak even went so far as to declare that he would not bet against him because he was worried that he would bounce back somewhere else if he did. Why even bother shopping him if that’s the case?
Arenado just finished what may have been his worst MLB season. He cut. 272/.325/.394 with 71 RBI and 16 home homers. Although he wasn’t terrible at the plate and was still a Gold Glove-caliber defender in the hot corner, it’s not ideal for a 33-year-old to have a really disappointing season. Arenado’s deal still has three costly years left on it. Given that the Cardinals want to cut the majority of the deal, it is easy to understand why clubs are hesitant to trade for him.
If Mozeliak truly believed he had a bounce-back season ahead of him, the Cardinals would have no reason to deal him given his current low worth. He would become much more valuable and much simpler to trade if he waited for that recovery. Cardinals supporters can see through this, even if Mozeliak is obviously not going to criticize a guy who is currently on his squad.
I hope Arenado has a strong season and disproves his skeptics, including Mozeliak, so the Cardinals can ultimately move him for a respectable return. Even though the 2025 campaign isn’t very thrilling for St. Louis, it would still be wonderful to witness.
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