During their annual holiday party at Busch Stadium, the St. Louis Cardinals looked poised to get the only item on their wish list.
It was the Friday after the Winter Meetings — the same day the Houston Astros agreed to Like an aftershock, word began to spread: After trading Tucker — a move that strongly deviated from the Astros’ usual operations — they were for Nolan Arenado.
Anticipation grew throughout the day. So did momentum.
The Cardinals were on the verge of trading Arenado, their top offseason goal, and they’d not only pulled off a deal, they’d matched with one of the teams on the eight-time All-Star’s short and semi-problematic five-team list of acceptable destinations.
How close? The “1-yard line,” according to a source.
But now, the surreal sight of Arenado reporting back to Cardinals camp this month, greeted by hugs in the parking lot, makes it clear that the 1-yard line is suddenly several football fields away.
“Here we are,’’ Cardinals’ president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said in late January. “Things happen.”
Over the course of a few days, the Astros deal fizzled, undone by an unlikely snag: When Arenado was presented with the trade, he balked.
According to multiple industry sources, Arenado was unsure of multiple things, including the timing of the deal and what direction Houston was trending. Though the Astros were on his original list of trade destinations, the loss of Tucker and the likely loss of free agent Alex Bregman had caused Arenado to reconsider. He wanted more time, sources described, and while he did not tell the Astros “no” definitively, he also did not want to rush into a decision.
Talks with other teams never got that far. The Cardinals had conversations with at least nine organizations — including some surprises. According to an industry source, multiple teams inquired about Arenado early in the offseason, including the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals and Los Angeles Angels. Those conversations did not yield much, as all three teams were considered non-starters. The Boston Red Sox had emerged as a potential fit until they signed Bregman days before position players were scheduled to report to their designated camps.