11:43am: The two teams have announced the trade. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports that the D-backs will only pay Arenado $5MM this year and $6MM next season. That means the Cardinals are eating $26MM of the $37MM they still owe Arenado.
11:34am: The two sides are in agreement on a trade, reports John Gambadoro of 98.7 Arizona Sports. Right-hander Jack Martinez, the Diamondbacks’ eighth-round pick from last summer’s draft, is going back to the Cardinals in return.
11:28am: MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert reports that a trade sending Arenado to Arizona is “close.” Woo and colleague Ken Rosenthal add that Arenado has agreed to waive his no-trade clause.
11:19am: The Diamondbacks and Cardinals are in “serious” discussions on a potential trade that would send Nolan Arenado from St. Louis to Arizona, reports Katie Woo of The Athletic.
With the Cardinals entering a rebuild under new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, trading the 34-year-old Arenado (35 in April) has been a primary goal this offseason. He’s still owed two years and $42MM, though the Rockies are on the hook for $5MM of that sum. Complicating the matter is a full no-trade clause and several years of decline at the plate for the eight-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger Award winner.
Three years ago, a salary dump of Arenado would’ve been hard to imagine. He was a National League MVP finalist after hitting .293/.358/.533 with 30 home runs and his typical brand of elite defense during that 2022 season. His offense slipped considerably in 2023 (.266/.315/.459) but was still north of league average. It dipped to about average in 2024, however, and plummeted well below par this past season.
In 436 plate appearances with the Cardinals in 2025, Arenado turned in an anemic .237/.289/.377 batting line. By measure of wRC+, he was 16% worse than an average hitter at the plate. Arenado’s 12 home runs were his lowest in a full season since his rookie year back in 2013. This year’s 6.4% walk rate was his lowest since 2015. When considering that his 34.1% chase rate on pitches off the plate was also his worst since 2015, that’s not particularly surprising. Arenado’s 11.2% strikeout rate was one of the lowest in MLB and one of the best in his career, but he also posted his highest-ever infield fly rate — 16.5% of his fly-balls were harmless pop-ups — and recorded some of the worst exit velocity and hard-hit numbers of his career.
More to come.
