The St. Louis Cardinals took care of one of the biggest overarching moves on their to-do-list earlier this offseason.

The Cardinals traded multi-time Platinum Glove-winning third baseman Nolan Arenado to the Arizona Diamondbacks in return for minor league right-handed pitcher Jack Martinez. St. Louis will pay $31 million of the $42 million remaining on Arenado's contract.

There were rumors of Arenado wanting to be traded away from the Cardinals as far back as last offseason. But despite his reported desires and St. Louis' cooperation with his wishes, the team struggled to find a suitor due to the remaining money left on the multi-time Gold Glover's contract and his declining offensive numbers.

The Cardinals reportedly had a trade in place last offseason that would have moved Arenado to the Houston Astros but the 34-year-old exercised his no-trade clause.

Despite St. Louis taking a decent amount of time to find a suitor, the Cardinals reportedly had several deals in place for Arenado.

The Athletics were one of those teams and reportedly were willing to pay more of Arenado's contract than the Diamondbacks but Arenado was seemingly prepared to exercise his no-trade clause once again.

In a recent appearance on the Foul Territory podcast, The Athletic's MLB insider Ken Rosenthal expanded on two teams that had deals in place for Arenado, the Athletics and San Diego Padres, and explained why those potential suitors didn't land the former three-time National League home run leader.

"The Sacramento A's were one of those teams. They were gonna use him at third base," Rosenthal said on the podcast. " ... What happened in that case was they had a deal in place with the Cardinals, I'm told. And the deal was one in which they were taking on more money than the Diamondbacks ultimately did. ... The A's were gonna pay more (than the Diamondbacks) and in that respect, it was a better deal that the Cardinals would have gotten. But Arenado indicated he would rather they continue negotiating with teams like the Diamondbacks. ... The Padres wanted Arenado to play first base. And that would have been a position change for him but this guy's a 10-time Gold Glove winner at third, or whatever it is. I would feel comfortable that he would have adapted to first. And the Padres' thought process was 'We really don't want to really pay any of this. We want the Cardinals to pay the vast, vast majority of this (contract).'"

Rosenthal expanded on the Padres, saying that they would have rather spent money on a starting pitcher or another bat in the lineup rather than eating a chunk of Arenado's contract.

The desire to switch Arenado from third base to first would have also been a curious one for San Diego.

Arenado's OPS has dipped in each of the last four seasons: .891 in 2022, .774 in '23, .719 in '24 and .666 in '25.

Arenado's batting average and games played also dipped this past season. His batting average went from .272 to .237 and he played 152 games in '24 compared to 107 in '25, respectively.

Arenado's main value is still in his glove.

This past year, Arenado registered three outs above average at third base in '25, which ranked in the 81st percentile of baseball, according to Baseball Savant.

As Rosenthal alluded to, Arenado likely would have been able to make the transition to first. But it would have been a curious decision to move a plus defender with a declining bat off a premium defensive position he's still capable of playing at a decent level.

Regardless, Arenado now playing in the desert and St. Louis is still attempting to add the final touches to it's rebuild.

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