'Patience is required': Mozeliak addresses lack of Arenado trade as camp starts

JUPITER, Fla. -- Opening his 18th and final Spring Training while working as one of the front-office leaders of the Cardinals, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak was quick to point out how different this year's camp feels, in part due to the club’s ongoing frustration in trading star third baseman Nolan Arenado.

St. Louis made few alterations this offseason, after finishing 83-79 and missing the playoffs a second straight season, and the club also hasn't been able to accomplish its primary goal of dealing Arenado. That obstacle has already loomed over Cards camp, Mozeliak admitted on Tuesday.

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“It’s an oddity; normally we open this thing feeling really good about what we accomplished in the offseason and then there’s the hope of spring,” said Mozeliak said. “But right now, we have this over our heads and it’s what we’re working through.”

With position players scheduled to report for Spring Training on Sunday, and the first full-squad workout set to take place the next day, the Cardinals could be facing a scenario where they have an unhappy Arenado in camp with them by next week. Mozeliak said his expectation is that Arenado would report to the team’s headquarters by Sunday if there is no deal in place by then. While admitting that he hadn’t spoken to Arenado’s camp in multiple weeks, Mozeliak said he did expect to contact them before Sunday’s report deadline.

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“We’re adults. Would it be awkward? I would imagine there would be a moment of awkwardness, but I still think he’s a professional baseball player and he’s currently a St. Louis Cardinal, and we all understand once you are here, you’re pushing forward,” Mozeliak said. “Would that mean trying to accomplish something during Spring Training? Possibly, but there are no guarantees at that point.”

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A Cardinals club delighted to acquire Arenado in 2021 openly made trading the 10-time Gold Glove winner their top priority as last season ended. However, the 33-year-old third baseman has a full no-trade clause in his contract, and he flexed that option to nix a potential deal with the Astros in December.

Arenado, who is still owed $64 million over the next three years, has limited the teams that he would consider playing for -- a list that hasn’t expanded beyond five teams. The protracted free agency of Alex Bregman -- who agreed to a deal with the Red Sox on Wednesday night, per source -- also might have slowed down any potential movement.

“If you think back to when we started discussing the possibility of trading him, we thought all along that we could probably do something this offseason, but it just hasn’t happened,” said Mozeliak, who has been limited to trying to trade with the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Padres and Angels, per sources. “Ultimately, I did not have a large list of teams, and it wasn’t like there were 29 teams I could take him to, so I’m trying to navigate what I could work with. Obviously, it hasn’t moved at the pace many of us had hoped for.”

As the Cardinals focus on their youth movement for 2025, they parted ways with free agents Paul Goldschmidt and Andrew Kittredge, and they didn’t pick up the contract option for either Lance Lynn or Kyle Gibson. St. Louis hoped to have traded Arenado away by now, which would have opened up potential playing time for 24-year-old slugger Nolan Gorman and the club's No. 4 prospect in 2024, Thomas Saggese. Now those players, much like the Cards, are left in limbo.

“You operate as if he’s coming to camp, and my conversations with [Arenado] up to this point have been exactly that,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “Until that changes, there is no reason to plan otherwise. So as we stand here today, we have pitchers and catchers here and we’re focused on that. Once we get to the position players being here and a full camp, we’ll address it.”

Mozeliak, who will leave his current position after the 2025 season when advisor Chaim Bloom will take over as the president of baseball operations, said he’s never had any situation in his time with the Cardinals that compares to the Arenado saga. While he usually enters most negotiations as an “optimist,” he has admittedly grown weary of trying to predict whether an Arenado trade will happen in the coming days.

“Could something happen in the next week? Possibly. Could this go into camp? Possibly,” Mozeliak said. “So, I don’t have a definitive answer. Patience is required.”