The St. Louis Cardinals are set to enter a rebuild, though some are phrasing it as a “reload” rather than a full-on rebuild, indicating that St. Louis doesn’t plan on completely blowing up its roster.
A lot of the speculation has been that players like Sonny Gray, Miles Mikolas, and Ryan Helsley could all be on the move over the next few weeks.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale has indicated St. Louis is going for a much smaller rebuild than many expected. Rather than trading all its veterans, Nightengale says the team is only looking to move one veteran right now.
“The St. Louis Cardinals are planning to reload – but not completely rebuild – with Nolan Arenado the only high-priced player they are shopping,” Nightengale wrote. “Arenado has three years, $52 million remaining in his contract, but the Colorado Rockies are responsible for $4 million each of the final three seasons.”
Arenado could be looked at as a must-trade piece for St. Louis for a couple of reasons. One, his market, as long as the Cardinals eat a little bit of his contract, will be hot and aggressive, especially after Willy Adames and Alex Bregman sign in free agency.
A few teams that make sense as Arenado trade suitors would be the New York Yankees, New York Mets, and Boston Red Sox. A few other teams could emerge as potential landing spots as well, but only time will tell.
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