Nolan

Arenado

Arenado poked a ball through the infield defense to drive in a run in the first inning. He later doubled in the sixth and scored on a base hit by Iván Herrera. The 33-year-old third baseman reached for a third time with a walk in the seventh. He’s off to a solid start through two games, going 4-for-8 with a home run.

Arenado gave the Cardinals some cushion with a solo homer off a normally-effective Griffin Jax in the eighth inning. The 33-year-old had just a single homer in the first month of the season in 2024 in what was his worst season since his rookie campaign. It’s great to see some early success for Arenado, but fantasy managers should still hold some skepticism.

Arenado has been a complete afterthought this spring after a turbulent offseason where he was at the epicenter of constant trade speculation. The 33-year-old defensive wizard is coming off one of the worst seasons of his career at the plate, but it seems unlikely that he’s completely cooked. Even a mild rebound campaign would put him back in the 25-homer range and make him relevant in deeper mixed leagues.

Arenado’s double checked in at 108.0 mph, which is harder than any ball he hit in the regular season last year; he previously topped out around 110 mph, but his high in 2024 was 107.5 mph. We don’t always trust spring training Statcast, but this would seem to track for Arenado, as he was working on regaining bat speed in the offseason.

Arenado doesn’t make a lot of road trips in spring training, but it seemed like he wanted to impress a potential suitor today. Alas, it didn’t really work out. His one non-strikeout, a 66-mph lineout, turned out to be second softest ball in play over the course of the game.

Altuve will make his first ever start in the outfield after working at the position as a way to create roster flexibility. It’s interesting that the start will come against St. Louis, as one of the reasons Altuve could play left field is if Houston was to trade for Nolan Arenado. Either way, it seems more likely than not that Altuve will carry eligibility at a couple different positions early in the 2025 campaign.

Rome and Woo also passed along that Arenado, who vetoed a deal to Houston in mid-December, hasn’t changed his mind about approving a trade to the Astros. Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said Saturday that he doesn’t feel anything is imminent. Despite St. Louis aggressively shopping the 33-year-old third baseman and Houston seemingly still interested in moving around Isaac Paredes and Jose Altuve defensively to accommodate an addition at the hot corner, a deal sending Arenado to Houston seems like a long shot at best.

Interesting. The two sides had agreed to a deal in mid-December, but Arenado was unsure on the direction that the Astros were headed after trading Kyle Tucker and letting Alex Bregman walk, so he blocked the trade since his preference was to play for a contender. The Cardinals have been aggressively shopping Arenado and were willing to pay down $15-$20 million in December when the two sides matched to help pay down his salary — and the expectation is that they would be willing to do the same this time around as they desperately want to cut salary. If the Astros are successful in landing Arenado, it would shift Isaac Paredes to second base and Jose Altuve to the outfield. Stay tuned.

It’s also worth noting that Nolan Arenado is in the lineup at third base after being the subject of persistent offseason trade rumors. Winn is the current favorite to lead off this season for the Cardinals and has expressed a desire to be more active on the bases from a stolen base standpoint. The 22-year-old’s strong rookie campaign was overshadowed by last year’s historic senior circuit class, but he finished with 15 homers and 11 steals in 150 contests. Despite it being an absolutely loaded position group, Winn enters the 2025 campaign as a borderline starting shortstop in shallow mixed leagues. The big question is whether he’ll get more aggressive from a stolen base perspective.

With the Red Sox signing Alex Bregman on Wednesday night, the biggest potential target for Arenado is now off the table. It’s possible the Yankees, Cubs, or Tigers, who were all in on Bregman, could be interested in Arenado, but it doesn’t appear likely given his contract and recent run of declining production. Mozeliak said, “Our mindset is Nolan Arenado is our third baseman,” and fantasy managers likely should be as well.