Nolan Arenado Invoked NTC to Block Trade to Astros

Bwahahahahaha. As reported by Mark Feinsand, John Denton, and Brian McTaggart of MLB.com, Nolan Arenado invoked his no-trade clause to block an agreed-upon deal that would have sent the third baseman and $15-20 million to Houston. Arenado still has three years and $74 million remaining on his deal, but the Rockies are footing $10 million of that and another $12 million in deferrals brings the net present value to around $60 million. That means the Astros would only have been on the hook for around $40-45 million.

While some believe the two sides will continue talking, this isn’t a matter of whether the teams can agree since that part is already done. It’s hilarious to me that the Cardinals didn’t seek Arenado’s approval prior to getting so far down the road, which got me thinking about how Ryan Dempster reportedly shut down a trade to the Braves over a decade ago. While Dempster has said he did no such thing, the Cubs pivoted to a deal with the Rangers that brought Kyle Hendricks to Chicago. Not bad.

The best part is that the Cubs trading for Kyle Tucker might be what tanked this deal in the end. Arenado may have felt that losing the All-Star right fielder, along with the willingness to deal Framber Valdez and the increasingly obvious admission that they won’t re-sign Alex Bregman, means the Astros aren’t going to be competitive enough. And though the best defensive third baseman of his era has expressed a willingness to play elsewhere if needed, doing so to accommodate Isaac Paredes probably wasn’t in the, er, cards.

It’s far more likely that Paredes would be the one moving across the diamond in that situation, but I guess we may never know. The moral of the story here is that St. Louis appears to be even more desperate than the Cubs to clear salary, but probably without reallocating much of the savings.

“[Arenado remaining with the Cardinals] is a possibility, but I’m not sure that puts us where we want to be.” Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said during the Winter Meetings. “From a financial standpoint of trying to move our payroll – there are certainly other ways to do that, but [trading Arenado] would be a big help. It’s financial, but it also creates a runway for someone else.”

Is it bad that I hope they continue to fail in their efforts to move Arenado and that he ends up staying in St. Louis and toiling unhappily until they have to flip him at the deadline or next winter for nothing? Even though he’s getting a little long in the tooth and has not been nearly as dominant against the Cubs as he has the Reds and Brewers, getting him out of the division would be a good thing.