Nolan Arenado to the Mets? Okay By Me!

By Curt Alliaume

 

CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, and a few other outlets are reporting the Colorado Rockies “want to engage” the New York Mets in trade talks for their All-Star third baseman, Nolan Arenado.

I don’t know what “want to engage” really means in this context. I’m guessing it’s somebody in the Rockies’ front office spreading the word that, “Hey, we’re going to lose this guy in a year no matter what, so let’s see if we can get anything for him.” Arenado has six years left on a ten-year contract that will pay him $35 million each of the next four years (and slightly less thereafter); he also has a player opt-out clause that would allow him to leave after next season. Given Arenado has made no secret about how lousy a job the Rockies’ front office has done developing good players and bringing in guys to compete, he’s likely to use that clause (unless it’s obvious he won’t get anywhere near the deal he has now). They made the playoffs in 2017 and 2018, but haven’t come close the last two years, and that’s with a pretty good manager (Bud Black) at the helm.

Arenado’s a star. First of all, he’s won eight consecutive Gold Gloves. Last year was his first year since 2014 he put up an OPS of less than .898 or played in less than 95 percent of the team’s games. (He got off to a slow start after the season started in July, hit near his career norms in August, and then got shut down in September with a shoulder injury, which was only the second time he’s gone to the IL in his career.) And he obviously wants to win.

And he’s not old. He’s 29 now; he’ll be 30 a couple of weeks after the season starts.

I don’t know what the Rockies will want in exchange for Arenado (Brodie Van Wagenen basically strip-mined the Mets’ farm system, so they don’t have a ton to offer), but it’s possible the Rocks may take something low in order to get out from under his contract. And if the Mets can get Arenado to waive his opt-out clause, it could be a pretty sweet deal. I wonder if they’d be willing to offer some of the parts that don’t currently fit (Amed Rosario? J.D. Davis? Possibly either Dominic Smith or Pete Alonso, assuming the DH isn’t coming back to the NL this year?) to get ahold of Arenado.

Arenado has 39.1 WAR in his eight seasons in the majors—by comparison, David Wright was eight months younger after his first eight big league seasons, and had 34.4 WAR. (Wright might have been a slightly better hitter, but he was not close to Arenado as a fielder.)

If I’m in the Mets front office, I’ve got to consider this.