1 year ago: Nolan Arenado traded to the St. Louis Cardinals

One year ago today, the Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals agreed to terms on a deal that would send third baseman Nolan Arenado to the Cardinals. The move was pulled off on a Friday afternoon but it wasn’t made official until the following Monday, which was February 1.

It was a move that sent Colorado Rockies fans into more of a fury than they were before since the team really hadn’t made any moves to make their team better in recent years. The writing had been on the wall during the offseason that something had to give between Rockies GM Jeff Bridich and Arenado but by May, both of them were gone as Arenado was traded and Bridich had resigned his GM post in later April.

One year ago, the Colorado Rockies agreed to send Nolan Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Colorado Rockies were widely criticized for trading Nolan Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals but they were also widely criticized for the return that they got.

Montero is the highest prospect of the bunch but he was still only the #7 prospect in the Rockies system when they acquired him.

Gomber was the only MLB-ready piece that came in the deal as he appeared in 43 games (15 starts) for the Cardinals in 2018 and 2020. He slotted into the Rockies rotation and did well, particularly at Coors Field.

However, the thing that angered fans was the inclusion of the $50 million. The Rockies were crying poor at the time and claimed that they couldn’t afford him and couldn’t afford to sign any free agents to make their team better … but they could afford to send $50 million to the Cardinals … and still did not get any top 100 prospects in the sport.

There’s a reason why Cardinals President John Mozeliak said that he “felt nauseous” that a trade wouldn’t come together: it was a trade that tremendously favored the Cardinals.

It was the only offer on the table for the Rockies but they felt that Arenado would opt out (when he said one week after the trade that “it might not have been a great decision” for him to opt out after the 2021 season. Arenado did not opt out with the Cardinals either.

The genesis of the problem was that the Rockies knew that they weren’t planning on keeping him long-term since they claimed that they didn’t have any more money to spend when Arenado specifically said that he wanted the Rockies to spend money on other players to contend.

The pandemic (and, therefore, lack of revenue) exacerbated the issue but it was apparent after the Rockies did nothing to add anybody else of value after Arenado after his extension in February 2019 or in the 2019-2020 offseason.

The Rockies did improve slightly in 2021 as they went 74-87 but they were still well out of playoff contention, despite owner Dick Monfort’s insights in the press conference announcing the Arenado trade.