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By Mike Cole
Contributing Sports Writer
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The third base market could get a major shakeup ahead of the MLB trade deadline if the St. Louis Cardinals are able to find common ground regarding Nolan Arenado.
The eight-time All-Star was the subject of major trade rumors involving a few teams during the offseason. Teams like the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox reportedly had varying levels of interest in making a deal with St. Louis.
Ultimately, Arenado stayed up. That could change ahead of Thursday's MLB trade deadline, and if that does happen, it could have a major impact on the market.
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MLB.com's Mark Feinsand said there's renewed interest in Arenado among teams looking for third-base help, and St. Louis could trade him before the buzzer. This seems to either be a change of course or counter to past reporting, as a previous report indicated the Cardinals planned to keep Arenado.
Regardless, Feinsand offers one very important caveat: "The Cardinals will have to get approval from Arenado, who possesses a full no-trade clause and can veto any trade -- which he did in December after the Cardinals and Astros had agreed to a trade to send the eight-time All-Star to Houston."
Quite frankly, it's hard to conceptualize what sort of deal it would take to get an Arenado deal done. The 34-year-old is a long way from the player who was a perennial All-Star in Colorado. Arenado has been on an undeniable downturn, especially if you take out his 2022 season in which he finished third in MVP voting. His .237 batting average would be a career low, as would his .669 OPS, which is not just a sharp drop-off from his career mark (.847) but also a pretty significant 50-point drop from last year -- which was his career-worst until that point.
Then there's the contract. He's got two years left after this one on an eight-year, $260 million deal he signed with Colorado. As Feinsand notes, the Rockies are paying some of the deferred money, and the Cardinals could also help pay off some of the deal. Even so, that no-trade protection looms large, meaning teams would really have to thread the needle to get something done.
Perhaps the chance to play meaningful baseball would open up Arenado's market. The Cardinals were a painfully mediocre 54-53, 3 1/2 games out of National League wild-card contention entering Monday.
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