The Yankees-Nolan Arenado rumors just won’t go away. For the past year and a half, it’s been the most persistent trade talk in baseball, with Arenado and the St. Louis Cardinals linked to New York in what feels like a weekly cycle.
Some insiders say the Yankees aren’t really interested. Others think a deal could happen within the next month. The truth? Nobody knows for sure.
But here’s what we do know: the Yankees desperately need a third baseman. They can’t keep running DJ LeMahieu at second base while Jazz Chisholm Jr. mans third. LeMahieu’s performance suggests he shouldn’t be in the everyday lineup at all, and adding Arenado would solve multiple problems at once.
That’s assuming two big things happen first. The Cardinals have to actually want to move on from their eight-time Gold Glover, and Arenado has to waive his no-trade clause.
Yahoo Sports thinks it’s possible, listing Arenado as a potential Yankees target for the upcoming trade deadline.
“Which serves to underscore the fact that New York has been looking for someone to fill the void at third for a while, and at this point, having tried all the internal options, the fix is going to have to come from outside the organization.”
The financial piece is where this gets interesting. If the Cardinals are willing to eat a significant chunk of Arenado’s remaining contract – which runs through 2027 – then moving him makes sense for St. Louis. Getting off that money could give them flexibility to rebuild.
But if they’re going to pay most of it anyway? That’s where the logic breaks down. Why trade a perennial Gold Glove winner if you’re still covering the majority of his salary for the next few years?
The Yankees, meanwhile, seem to be running out of internal options. They’ve shuffled the deck chairs enough times to know what they have, and what they have isn’t working at the hot corner.
Whether this finally becomes more than just persistent rumors remains to be seen. But the fit makes sense for both sides – if the financials can work out.
