Yankees Predicted to Trade for $74 Million 8-Time All-Star Before Opening Day

The St. Louis Cardinals have been attempting to trade their eight-time All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado since at least the end of the 2024 season. The 33-year-old Arenado has three years and $74 million remaining on the eight-year, $260 million contract he signed with his original team, the Colorado Rockies.

St. Louis, after missing the playoffs two years straight and failing to advance past the Wild Card round since 2019, is looking to rebuild and needs to shed as much of Arenado’s money as possible to clear the way.

Thanks to Arenado’s no-trade clause and the Cardinals’ failure so far to reach a deal with any teams Arenado is willing to join, only one viable trade destination appears to remain on the table: the New York Yankees.

On Wednesday, a senior MLB writer for The Athletic, Britt Ghiroli, predicted that an Arenado trade will happen — and not only that, but the deal will get done before Opening Day, which for the Yankees is March 27 at home against the Milwaukee Brewers.

“This is just a no-brainer to me,” Ghiroli said in an appearance on the New York cable sports network SNY. “I mean, we’ve been talking about it all winter.”

Ghiroli also suggested that Arenado could be traded to the Astros, a team that the 10-time Gold Glove winner earlier rejected, even though the Cardinals reportedly had a deal in place.

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During the same SNY discussion, former New York Mets executive Zack Scott said, in his view, Arenado prefers to move to the Yankees — as evidenced by the fact that on Wednesday he traveled nearly 200 miles with the Cardinals to play a spring training game against New York at George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida.

“Normally I would say we’re probably making something out of nothing, but I actually think this is something,” Scott said in his SNY appearance. “It’s really early in spring training, and veterans don’t like making that trip. So it does seem like he probably wants to finally have this over with and be somewhere else, and so he’s going to go showcase himself as much as he can.”

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If Arenado was attempting to “showcase” himself to the Yankees, he didn’t do a great job of it. In that game, won 7-0 by the Yankees, Arenado went hitless in three at-bats, striking out twice. His first K came in he second inning against top Yankees pitching prospect Will Warren.

Arenado fanned again in the seventh, set down on four pitches by career minor-leaguer Brent Headrick, who has pitched in only one MLB game since 2023 and only 15 total ever.

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