After a few days of waiting for their complicated trade to be completed, the Cardinals and Rockies concluded their business by focusing on the third baseman Nolan Arenado, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports. The league and the union signed the exchange. The Rocky Mountains will receive lefties Austin Gomber, third base Mateo Gilinfielder Elehuris Montero and right-handed Tony Locey and Jake Sommers in exchange for Arenado, for Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Derrick Goold of St. Louis Post-Dispatch previously reported Gomber’s place in the business, while Ken Rosenthal and Nick Groke of The Athletic tweeted that Gil would be in it.
The two teams agreed to this exchange in principle last Friday, but it was suspended over the weekend while they settled the finances and which players would be involved. St. Louis is now hosting one of the game’s top in-house players, and the team is expected to add another year and $ 15 million to Arenado’s contract. As such, he will be hired until 2027 for $ 214 million. The Rockies will absorb $ 51 million, including some in deferrals, according to Feinsand.
Along with the added value to his business, Arenado will be able to cancel the deal after any of the next two seasons (the Cardinals added the second cancellation as part of the deal; most of the money Rox owes will be after the deactivations, adds Feinsand ). Considering the concessions the cardinals are making, it is no surprise that Arenado has waived its no-trade clause to become part of the club. Of course, it helps that the Cardinals look much better equipped to compete for a playoff spot than the Rockies, who saw their relationship with Arenado deteriorate last year. The Rockies, for whom Arenado played from 2013-20, won places in the playoffs in 2017 and 18, but have since fallen. Arenado, dissatisfied with the team’s inactivity at the free agency, was part of the trade rumors in the off-season and even accused general manager Jeff Bridich of treating him with disrespect.
The Rockies led by Bridich are now erasing most of Arenado’s contract from the books, but they are also missing out on a franchise guy who won eight gold gloves and five waving All-Star uniforms. The 29-year-old Arenado combined a well-above-average attack annually with superb defense like a Rockie, although his base production declined during the shortened campaign for the 2020 pandemic. In 201 plate appearances, Arenado hit the worst of his career , 0.253 / 0.303 / 0.434 – below a lifetime of 0.293 / 0.343 / 0.541. Arenado walked (15) almost as fast as he hit (20), and a hitting average of 0.241 on the balls in play hurt his cause, but his Statcast numbers also plummeted.
Cardinals undoubtedly regard Arenado’s decline in 2020 as a small sample. He will now take charge in the warm corner of the club instead of Matt Carpenter and Tommy Edman, the Cardinals’ top picks last year. Both Carpenter and Edman also have second base experience, so they can share the cornerstone next season if Kolten Wong free agency outings. However, it is possible that the Cardinals would prefer to find a way to dispose of Carpenter, a former standout whose production was weak in 2019-20. This may not be feasible, however, considering the 35-year-old man’s sudden drop, the $ 20.5 million he is expected to pay by 2021 (including a $ 2 million purchase for 1922) and his banned protection.
To reinforce their situation in third place, the Cardinals are splitting up from some of their top 30 farmers, although the Rocky Mountains do not appear to be getting any top talent back. Baseball America ranked Montero in 14th, Locey 26th and Gil 28th in the Cardinals system before the switch.
Montero, who reached the top as the 81st BA candidate in sport in 2019, made his professional debut in 2015 and reached the Double-A level in 2019. While fighting there, the 22-year-old usually produced above average numbers in the smallest , BA wrote last season that Montero is “a strong, physical hitter, with excellent hand-eye coordination, bat speed and brute strength”. Defensively, Montero’s future may be at first base.
Locey, a third round pick in 2019, split his draft year between the rookie and Single-A levels. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked Locey 16th in the Cardinals system a year ago and wrote that he could be an appeaser, as his speed mixes well with short passes.
Gil, son of former major league player Benji Gil, who played primarily as a rookie, returning to his first taste of professional action in 2018. Longenhagen wrote in 2020 that the 20-year-old has a “lower regular advantage”.
Sommers, 23, is Rox’s only chance to get back, which was not among BA’s top 30 for the Cardinals at the time of the deal. He is a pick of the 10th round in 2019, which played 51 2/3 ball entries ERA 4.18 and hit more than one batter per entry at the rookie level during his draft year.
More to come.