Red Sox
“If the Red Sox and Cardinals were to match up on value, there would be no hesitation on Arenado’s end to accept the deal.”
The writing seems to be on the wall that Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado will be playing for another team in 2025 and beyond.
But the eight-time All-Star has some say in his next stop, considering that the veteran reportedly waived his no-trade clause to avoid getting traded to the Houston Astros.
It was a surprising move by Arenado, considering that Houston was seemingly ready to move on from Alex Bregman at the hot corner.
But according to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam, it seems as if Arenado might be holding out hope for a trade to Boston.
“Boston is a preferred destination — if not the preferred destination — for Arenado, a hot trade candidate who has a full no-trade clause, industry sources said Sunday,” Cotillo and McAdam wrote. “The 33-year-old has already invoked that clause to control his future once, blocking a trade to Houston in late December.
“If the Red Sox and Cardinals were to match up on value, there would be no hesitation on Arenado’s end to accept the deal.”
Arenado would provide a significant upgrade to Boston’s infield defense, considering that the 33-year-old has 10 Gold Gloves on his resume.
There is some concern about Arenado’s bat, however. He batted .272 with 16 home runs and 71 RBI over 152 games in 2024. Arenado’s WAR has dipped during his tenure with St. Louis — going from 7.7 in 2022 to 2.4 and 2.5 in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Beyond concerns over Arenado’s viability as the middle-of-the-order bat at this stage of his career, Boston already has a third baseman in place in Rafael Devers.
The Red Sox could shift Devers to first base in order to accommodate Arenado, but that would require trading Triston Casas. Moving Devers to DH would also be an issue, as the team has been unable to move Masataka Yoshida’s contract at this stage of the offseason.
Speaking last week, Craig Breslow stressed that the Red Sox were not interested in moving Casas — who has been listed in trade rumors throughout the winter.
“I’m not totally sure where it comes from,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told reporters. “We’re not shopping Triston. We see him as a guy that can hit in the middle of the lineup for a really long time here in Boston.
“Obviously, plus power, plus strike zone judgment, the ability to get on base, and it’s someone that I don’t think we’ve seen the best of. He obviously missed a number of months during the season. We’re really excited for him to be completely healthy. He’s had a full healthy offseason.
“When you have really good young players, I don’t think it’s surprising that other teams would ask about them. But I’ve seen some of the speculation about what deals may or may not have existed or what may or may not have been proposed. And there was nothing that was remotely close. We’re certainly not shopping him.”
Despite Breslow’s comments, both Cotillo and McAdam reported on Sunday that “there remains a belief in the industry that the Red Sox remain open to trading Casas, potentially for young pitching, to facilitate other roster maneuvering.”
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