Nolan Arenado Trade Rumors
Nolan Arenado’s discontent with the Colorado Rockies organization has led to the speculation that the New York Yankees may be interested in trading for him. We know that Brian Cashman has inquired about Nolan Arenado in the past, prior to Arenado signing his contract extension with the Rockies. For us fans, this gives the rumor some legs.
Nolan Arenado is one of, if not the best, third basemen in MLB. He absolutely be an upgrade over Gio Urshela and Miguel Andujar. However, I don’t want the Yankees to trade for him.
There is no question Arenado makes the Yankees a better team, at least for the regular season. He has hit 37 or more home runs in each of the last 5 seasons, in Colorado, but still he’s an impressive hitter. Arenado is considered an excellent fielder. I’m not watching him field third base on a nightly basis but has won 7 straight Gold Glove Awards so I can assume excellent fielder is a fair assessment. I do acknowledge he’s a great player but I have reasons for not wanting him on the Yankees.
First and foremost, we’ve seen enough “superstars” come from smaller markets and struggle in New York. A lot would have to go wrong for the Yankees not to make the playoffs in 2020. The Yankees mission for 2020 is winning the World Series. Maybe Arenado can help with that, maybe he can’t? We don’t know how Arenado performs on the big stage. We don’t know how long it will take for him to adjust to New York. A month? A season? Never? There is too much on the line for this season to start gambling in the playoffs. Arenado has played in a total of 5 playoff games, 2 Wild Card games a 3 NLDS games, in which the Rockies were swept by the Milwaukee Brewers. I don’t consider that a postseason pedigree. If the Yankees are going to move on from Urshela/Andujar then the guy NEEDS to have a postseason pedigree.
Secondly, there is no reason for the Yankees to take on Arenado’s contract. The Yankees will have to pay guys like Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres within the next few years, there is no reason to take on another massive deal for a guy that is really just a luxury.
Another cost is the prospects it would take to make that deal happen. Not every prospect is going to play for the Yankees but I would rather hang on to the prospects for a deal that is more of a necessity. For example, if a key player gets hurt before the trade deadline I would rather the Yankees have the necessary pieces to make a deal happen to replace that player to ensure they fully stocked for a postseason run. Giving up the key pieces to a deal like that for a luxury now would be too short sighted.
If Cashman does want an upgrade at third base, I present an alternative. Take a look a Kris Bryant instead. Bryant addresses the postseason pedigree, he played a key role in the 2016 World Series run for the Chicago Cubs. He won a World Series with the Chicago Freaking Cubs, that is about as playoff hardened as a guy can get.
He’s available, he’s disgruntled with his organization like Nolan Arenado. The bad blood there pretty much ensures he wouldn’t resign with the Cubs so the Cubs know they’ll have to move on from him. He will be less expensive, at least in the short term. He would probably cost just as much as Arenado in terms of prospects but you know you are getting a playoff veteran so that offsets the cost of the prospects. (And let’s face it, Theo Epstein is going to ask for a haul to make up for the Gleyber Torres deal)
My official take on the subject, I am perfectly happy going into 2020 with Gio Urshela and Miguel Andujar competing for the third base job. If Cashman wants an upgrade then he needs to look at Kris Bryant instead of Nolan Arenado.
Links to the Baseball-Reference pages if you want to look into the numbers a little deeper!