When St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom was hired to his current role at the end of the 2024 season, there was an understanding that the team would be heading into a rebuild.

So far, a little over a year into Bloom's tenure, the Cardinals have done exactly that.

From the trade deadline to now, St. Louis has dealt away closer Ryan Helsley, starting pitcher Sonny Gray, first baseman/catcher Willson Contreras and several other veterans, including second baseman Brendan Donovan and high-leverage reliever JoJo Romero, have also been linked to trade rumors.

Another player that was shipped out was third baseman Nolan Arenado.

The 10-time Gold Glove-winner and six-time Platinum Glove-winner was traded from the Cardinals to the Arizona Diamondbacks in return for pitching prospect Jack Martinez on Jan. 13.

It marked the end of a five-season tenure in St. Louis for Arenado, who was acquired by the team in a trade with the Colorado Rockies on Feb. 1, 2021.

Arenado was a part of the last two Cardinals playoff teams in 2021-22. In a recent episode of the Foul Territory podcast, Arenado was asked about the team's turn in fortune from the most recent playoff years to now.

"The Cardinals, I think — obviously in (2022) it was so much fun watching (Albert Pujols) do his thing," Arenado said on the podcast. "We were a really good team. Then, obviously, in (2023) we signed (Contreras), who was a good signing. I thought we were just gonna be good. I think the Cardinals have always found a way to be good even when, on paper, it may not look like they're gonna be great. But we always found a way and they always did. I think I didn't expect this turnaround to be the way it has been. I thought '23 was obviously extremely tough. The first losing season in I don't know how many years. ... That was extremely disappointing. ... It's hard to even explain, it happened so fast. (2022) — won the division. We lost to the Phillies but we felt like we were really good that year. (2023) — going in we thought we were going to be pretty good, too. Then all of the sudden, losing season and then everything kind of changed after that."

Arenado finished his tenure in St. Louis with a .266/.322/.456 slash line and a .778 OPS in 708 games. He hit 143 doubles, seven triples and 118 home runs with 424 RBIs.

Three of Arenado's eight career All-Star selections, 2-of-10 Gold Gloves, two-of-six Platinum Gloves and one-of-five Silver Slugger awards came during his tenure with the Cardinals.

St. Louis 2026 teams will look drastically different than the ones Arenado was on that made the playoffs. But if the Cardinals' rebuild goes successfully, the teams of the future will be able to do what the '21-22 teams did.

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