MLB rumors: Cardinals' surprising Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray trade stance
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The St. Louis Cardinals appear to be running out of the “devil magic” that has powered their organization for so many years; the organization has been on a downturn over the past two seasons, as in 2024, they were unable to rebound from a 71-win 2023 campaign and finished 10 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the NL Central crown. And now, the Cardinals may be sensing the need to hit a reset button of sorts.
To that end, the Cardinals reportedly will be fielding trade offers for veterans Nolan Arenado and Sonny Gray, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. In fact, the Cardinals have “told teams” that Arenado and Gray could be had for the right price, for as long as they can be persuaded to waive their no-trade clause.
Joining Arenado and Gray on the Cardinals’ trade block are Miles Mikolas and Ryan Helsley, and those four players could certainly be of help to teams with contending aspirations. Mikolas, however, like Arenado and Gray, has a no-trade clause as well, and it remains to be seen if any trade can convince those veterans to uproot themselves.
Regardless, this indicates that the Cardinals front office knows that they have to make moves to get the team back to contending ways after a disappointing past two seasons. This means that a youth movement could be the move in St. Louis. Arenado is 33, Gray is 35, while Mikolas is 36 — and getting some prospects to at least help replenish their pipeline could be worth all the trading trouble.
However, the Cardinals will have to strike a balance between going younger and not losing too much production on the interim. Arenado, Gray, Mikolas, and Helsley combined for 11.2 WAR last season (per Fangraphs), and replacing that kind of production won’t be easy. But it also has the good effect in that they should get some value on the trade market for those players, but they might end up targeting prospects who aren’t too far off from contributing to the big-league roster.
Cardinals look to go young as they aim to return to the playoffs
Age may be just a number, but in professional sports, the older athletes get, the more vulnerable they become to a steep decline in production. The Cardinals are clearly wary of this fact, if the rumor mill is any indication.
For starters, the Cardinals have to build up a youthful starting rotation from nearly scratch. Five of their most-used starters last season were over 31 years of age, with four of them being 34 or older. Now, those five veterans combined for 9.4 WAR (per Fangraphs), but St. Louis has to be concerned about their chances of keeping that up.
Perhaps the Cardinals target pitching prospects in trades, even though one of their top prospects, lefty Quinn Mathews, doesn’t appear to be too far off from the big leagues despite a rough stint in Triple-A. Tink Hence could also crack the big-league roster sooner or later, as he’s coming off an incredible year at Double-A, tallying a 2.71 ERA across 20 starts (79.2 innings).
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