Nolan Arenado’s statements about the current iteration of the St. Louis Cardinals were overshadowed by those of Willson Contreras, but the third baseman provided a glimpse at his own frustration with the team.
When Nolan Arenado looks back at his time with the St. Louis Cardinals, he’s likely to see a collage of missed opportunities. The third baseman was lured to St. Louis with expectations that the team would compete for a World Series title, but the Cardinals have managed only two playoff appearances and three total playoff games in Arenado’s four years in St. Louis.
After the Cardinals beat the Cleveland Guardians on Sept. 22, several players spoke to the media about the state of the team. Willson Contreras’ comments about the front office and the lineup ended up receiving the brunt of the attention, but Arenado provided a few telling nuggets of his own.
Arenado, who spent the prime of his career mashing at the hitter-friendly Coors Field in Denver, has not experienced the same success in the homer-suppressing atmosphere of Busch Stadium. As is usual with Arenado, he placed much of the blame of the team’s lack of prosperity on himself, but he also mentioned his frustrations with the park he now calls home.
Although his comments make sense on the surface, Arenado has historically hit very well on the road, so the statement could be emblematic of his deteriorating power. But perhaps more eye-opening was Arenado’s doubling down on his comments in February, where he said the team’s clubhouse was “overrun” with young players in 2023.
The Cardinals bought into the requests from Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt before the season to stack the roster with veterans, bringing in Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn, Sonny Gray, Matt Carpenter and Brandon Crawford to provide leadership to the clubhouse. Arenado’s statement about the team remaining young appears to be somewhat off base given the plethora of wisdom that was given to the Cardinals at his behest.
Although Arenado was not as pointed with his words as Contreras was regarding the front office, there is clearly a lot on his mind regarding the Cardinals’ direction.
Arenado might be lamenting his decision to opt in to his contract with the Cardinals that lasts through 2027 as the team has failed to find substantial success in the Arenado-Goldschmidt era. The 33-year-old future Hall of Famer knows that his career is winding down, and his postseason opportunities with the Rockies and the Cardinals have been scant. If Arenado stays in St. Louis and the Cardinals remain stuck in neutral, Arenado will rightly feel slighted by the organization that promised him a level of success that he never saw in Colorado.
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