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The Cardinals have made it clear they’re going to rebuild and regroup in 2025. And now, it’s clear that they’re okay if Nolan Arenado is not a part of that rebuild.

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak stressed on Monday night and later doubled down on his statements.

“It’s my intention to try,” Mozeliak said to John Denton of MLB.com when asked if the franchise would try and deal the 33-year-old star.

The Athletic’s Katie Woo later reported that the New York Yankees are interested in Arenado after failing to re-sign Juan Soto.

“At least one team involved in the Soto bidding — the New York Yankees — has expressed interest in Arenado, according to a league source, though it is unclear at this time if the Yankees are one of Arenado’s approved teams,” Woo wrote.

Arenado will earn $74 million over the remaining three years of his eight-year, $260 million contract and Mozeliak expressed that the desire to trade him is financially motivated.

“We both remain optimistic that both parties will remain happy somehow,” Mozeliak said. “[Arenado remaining with the Cardinals] is a possibility, but I’m not sure that puts us where we want to be. From a financial standpoint of trying to move our payroll – there are certainly other ways to do that, but [trading Arenado] would be a big help. It’s financial, but it also creates a runway for someone else.”

While he continued to shine in the field, Arenado, usually a pillar of consistency at the plate, endured a troubling power outage at the plate in 2024, He was faced with his lowest OPS (.719) and fewest homers (16) over a full season since his rookie year in 2013. His 71 RBIs were his fewest in a full season since 2014 (61).

The Cardinals are on the verge of having not won a single playoff game despite at one point having Paul Goldschmidt and Arenado on the team at the same time. And in the thriving final seasons of both Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina, it makes for a heartbreaking chapter in Cardinals history.

Quotes from the following article: https://www.mlb.com/news/john-mozeliak-cardinals-looking-to-trade-nolan-arenado