{"id":95818,"date":"2025-02-17T13:49:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T18:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=95818"},"modified":"2025-02-17T13:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T18:49:16","slug":"cardinals-star-ready-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/17\/cardinals-star-ready-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Cardinals Player Ready to Put Trade Speculation in the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Louis Cardinals star third baseman Nolan Arenado said he is focused on playing ball for the team in his first public comments this offseason. Arenado reported to the Cardinals Spring Training camp this week and spoke to reporters for the first time on Sunday. After four months of trade rumors<\/a> swirling around him, he said he is comfortable staying with the Cardinals.<\/p>\n

Top Cardinals Player Ready to Put Trade Speculation in the Past<\/h2>\n

“I\u2019m excited to get to work,” Arenado told reporters. “You know, I\u2019m a ball player and I\u2019m really focused on getting ready for the season and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Arenado Comfortable with the Cardinals<\/h3>\n

The eight-time All-Star said he was comfortable with the Cardinals. Arenado<\/a> told reporters he didn’t get caught up too much in the constant feed of trade rumors surrounding<\/a> him this offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cardinals told me about the direction that they\u2019re going, then I asked them to explore some things,” Arenado told reporters. “Nothing was demanded. That was something they were interested in doing also. That was it. Did I sit here in the offseason and think I wasn\u2019t coming back? No. I knew there was always a chance of me coming back, so I\u2019m prepared to be here.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Arenado said he was excited to be back with his teammates<\/a>. He also told reporters he didn’t have any bad feelings with the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not awkward for my teammates and my coaches. And to be honest it\u2019s not really awkward with the front office,” Arenado said. “They have a job to do, and I have a job to do.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Where Things Stand Now<\/h3>\n

Cardinals president of baseball operations told reporters on Sunday he is not seeking a trade daily. He did say he would listen if teams from Arenado’s list of acceptable trade destinations came to him, but that trading Arenado was no longer his focus now that Spring Training is starting.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals are moving to a new phase of focusing on youth development<\/a>. They let several free agents walk including former MVP Paul Goldschmidt<\/a>. Arenado was willing to go, but said he never tried to force anything. With a full no-trade clause in his contract, he gave the Cardinals a limited list<\/a> of places he’d go.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be willing to pick up my family and move them it has to be something that is worth it,” Arenado said. “So, that\u2019s kind of why the list was fairly small. I don\u2019t see myself really changing that list ever. Because, like I said, I have a family now and I don\u2019t really like moving them everywhere just to move them everywhere.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Arenado admitted he wished the organization was in a different place. However, he reiterated that he is focused on performing his best this year to help the team win.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I wish the direction was all in? Of course. But is this what\u2019s probably best for the Cardinals? Probably,” Arenado said. “I think they do need to reshape some things here and do some things. But at the end of the day, I\u2019m a ballplayer, I\u2019m a Cardinal until I\u2019m told I\u2019m not. That\u2019s all there is to it.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Arenado Focused on Improving<\/h3>\n

The 33-year-old is coming off career lows in RBI, home runs, and slugging percentage in seasons where he has had at least 500 at-bats. Nine of Arenado’s 12 seasons he has hit the 500 at-bat threshold. Arenado acknowledged he wanted to be better.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was not what I want the Cardinal fans to know me as,” Arenado said. “So, I see this as an opportunity to kind of change that script.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Arenado worked on his strength and explosion this offseason. He also told reporters he lost some weight. Arenado hopes his offseason workout regimen will help him get back to his usual career output.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got after it, I did what I felt was the right thing for me,” Arenado said. “I\u2019m hopeful that it comes into fruition pretty quickly here in Spring Training. My plan is to play a lot of games here in Spring Training and just be ready to go Opening Day.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Mozeliak told reporters Arenado is certainly welcome back. He said Arenado is the team’s third baseman.<\/p>\n

I think simply put with Nolan on our team we feel we\u2019re a better team,” Mozeliak said. “So, I think from today moving forward it\u2019s about him playing baseball, him being a ballplayer and us just trying to move forward with what this club is going to look like.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mozeliak acknowledged that will cost some of the younger players at-bats, most notably former first round pick Nolan Gorman<\/a>. However, he said the coaches are already working on ensuring Gorman and the other young players get at-bats.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Louis Cardinals star third baseman Nolan Arenado said he is focused on playing ball for the team in his first public comments this offseason. Arenado reported to the Cardinals Spring Training camp this week and spoke to reporters for the first time on Sunday. After four months of trade rumors swirling around him, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5111,"featured_media":95830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1071],"tags":[4527,213,2015,208,895,168],"class_list":["post-95818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardinals","category-mlb","tag-mlb-trade-rumors","tag-nolan-arenado","tag-nolan-gorman","tag-paul-goldschmidt","tag-spring-training","tag-st-louis-cardinals"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95818"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95831,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95818\/revisions\/95831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}