A Look Back At The Nolan Arenado Trade

On February 1st, 2021, Nolan Arenado was traded to the St Louis Cardinals after speculation of the star third baseman being disgruntled with the General Manager's vision with the current team and the future one. 

It’s no surprise that Arenado was going to be a highly sought out trade candidate with, at the time being a 5x All-Star and a 8x Gold Glove winner, as well as 6 Platinum Gloves solidifying himself as one of the best defensive Third Basemen in Baseball and a top 10 player in the game. Any trade for the former Rockies Franchise Player was going to be a haul back right? After the trade was finalized and the package was confirmed, it originally seemed like the Cardinals fleeced the Rockies on the trade, and now 3 years later it looks even worse than it did in 2021. Aside from the players involved, the worst part of the trade originally was Colorado sending $50 Million Dollars in the trade to the Cards to help them pay for Arenado’s contract. The Rockies extended Nolan in 2019 to an 8-year, $260 Million Dollar deal, now they send money away to help St. Louis pay for the contract they gave him, instead of using that money to pay him to play for them. The players going back to the Rockies were LHP Austin Gomber, INF Elehuris Montero and 3 other prospects (Mateo Gill, Toney Locey and Jake Sommers).

The biggest name that Colorado got in return was Austin Gomber, who even at the time was seen as a back-of-the-rotation arm with a solid frame, a low 90’s fastball and a pretty nice curveball. Since the trade until now, Gomber has a 5.22 Earned Run Average while being moved back and forth between the rotation and bullpen, far from ideal to what they expected. The only other player in the trade to make an appearance in MLB was Elehuris Montero who made his debut during the 2022 season and played 85 games in 2023 mainly appearing at First Base. Montero was able to hit 11 homers with a .243 Batting Average but was a below-average league hitter during his time on the field. With Kris Bryant being the First baseman going forward, Elehuris seems to be a bench bat in the future. The rest of the prospects in the trade are still young and have room to develop but none of them are shooting up the prospect rankings as of now. 

The former GM of the Rockies who traded Arenado, Jeff Bridich, has admitted that he could’ve done a better job on the trade and took the blame for the team's position at the time. Dick Monfront, the owner of the team offered his final thoughts to fans: “I mentioned I’m a fan, and I truly am, so I understand how [the fans] feel. To be quite honest, I would probably feel the same way.” This isn’t exactly a comment you want to hear from the person who is supposed to be confident in a trade he made and instead of relating to the fans, he could be trying to encourage them that the trade was good for the team. Monfront wasn’t done with his quotes about the trade, saying “I have anguished for many sleepless nights why that happened. … In all our conversations with him, he never just said it was this or that, or whatever.” It doesn’t seem like the owner was a fan of the trade.

Nobody can blame Arenado for requesting a trade in 2021, with the Rockies' offseason moves not being good enough to put the team in a position to win. Since the trade, Nolan has been a star hitting .271, 90 Home Runs, 301 Runs Batted In and an OPS+ of 126. Aside from his 2023 campaign where he had his worst season as a Cardinal (although he was stillan All-Star) Arenado has 2 Gold Gloves, 3 All-Star Game appearances, a Silver Slugger and finished 3rd in MVP Voting in 2022. He has helped the Cardinals compete every year, aside from their down season last year, but regardless Arenado was very productive even in his 11th year in the league. 

Now that the lookback is complete, this trade is one of the worst we may ever see for a top player of Nolan Arenado’s calibre. Not only has the trade not helped the Rockies improve, they are in a worse spot now than they were at the time of the trade.