The Cardinals offseason has been quiet and boring. The “reset” hinges upon whether or not they can trade Nolan Arenado. At Winter Warmup, John Mozeliak stated that trading him is still his top priority and that he would rather not pivot to trading starting pitchers such as Erick Fedde and Steven Matz.
So, that means that if the Cardinals can’t trade Arenado, there might not be any roster moves this winter, though Bill DeWitt Jr. and Bill DeWitt III have said they don’t feel the need to trade Arenado if Mozeliak wants to add a piece or two.
In truth, the messaging still isn’t clear. But as we know, what’s holding up Arenado’s market is Alex Bregman’s market, which has been slow moving in and of itself. But we know now that Bregman isn’t currently considering short-term deals, which could drag things out even longer.
However, I think that if those goes on any longer, teams might get impatient and decide that they need to make a move now. I would say that if I were in the Red Sox position, I’d go ahead and pivot away from Bregman, at least for now, and try to go for Arenado.
That’s an approach I feel teams interested in Bregman should take. There’s no indication that that is going to happen, but keep in mind that the Astros pivoted from Bregman quickly and almost landed Arenado themselves. It wasn’t until Arenado blocked the deal with his no-trade clause, which is also complicating things, that the trade fell apart.
Obviously, I’m no expert on the markets on how things are going to play out, but I do know that if teams take the suggested approach, the Cardinals can finally get on with their reset. They can shed some payroll, bring in some younger players and possibly even leave room for a value signing or two.
But this could finally get the market moving a little bit and benefit the Cardinals as they try to navigate their reset. Third base would also be opened up for Nolan Gorman, Thomas Saggese, or maybe even Brendan Donovan, depending on what the Cardinals decide to do.
But the time has come for some action, and I firmly believe that it’s time for teams to stop waiting around for Bregman and just pivot to Arenado if they want to improve their rosters so bad.