Another chapter in the Nolan Arenado-St. Louis Cardinals rumors?

On 101 ESPN Radio in St. Louis, Bob Nightengale of USA Today stated that, in a conversation with Nolan Arenado, the Colorado Rockies All-Star thought he would be traded at the trade deadline. Could that potential swap have sent him to the St. Louis Cardinals?

Bob Nightengale said on Friday that he talked to Nolan Arenado at length one day “for maybe an hour” and Arenado indicated to him that he believed he would be traded by the Colorado Rockies at the trade deadline. Of course, this was before the Major League Baseball spring training and regular season schedule was halted by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Where would Arenado be traded? Nightengale said St. Louis “seemed like the best option” and Arenado “was very big on St. Louis” because of the Cardinals’ extensive history of putting together winning seasons.

You can hear Nightengale’s comments below. You can also hear the entire 11-minute segment here.

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Of course, much has changed in our world and in Major League Baseball since this conversation. Without a firm start date for the upcoming season, much is up in the air, including if and when a trade deadline will be set during the 2020 campaign. That’s one of the reasons why Nightengale says in the interview that he now believes Arenado will be traded next winter. That would also be the season before Arenado has an opt-out clause (set to kick in at the end of the 2021 season) that could play a role in his decision, or another team’s decision to try to trade for him.

As we discussed in this article, the sudden end to spring training also put a halt to some of the questions about Arenado and his future in Colorado, as well as his relationship with general manager Jeff Bridich.

This certainly isn’t the first time this year that there has been talk about Arenado ending up in a Cardinals uniform. In January, there were plenty of rumors linking the two parties. However, at that time and at the height of the rumors, Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak had some pretty damning statements about many of the rumors. There was also talk that the price tag the Rockies were asking in return for Arenado was “prohibitive” from anything happening with the Cardinals.

There are a lot of questions about when the baseball season will start again. When it does and if the Rockies start strong, the rumors surrounding Arenado are likely to quiet down. If the Rockies start slow, however, you can expect there to be plenty of noise about Arenado’s time in Denver drawing to a close sooner than later.