The St. Louis Cardinals announced tonight that they have officially acquired Colorado Rockes’ superstar third baseman Nolan Arenado:
Worth the wait! pic.twitter.com/NcWnraUOdu
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) February 2, 2021
In return, the Rockies will receive left-handed pitcher Austin Gomber and the following prospects:
- INF Elehuris Montero (MLB.com No. 8 Cardinals prospect)
- RHP Tony Locey (MLB.com No. 19 Cardinals prospect)
- INF Mateo Gil (MLB.com No. 22 Cardinals prospect)
- RHP Jake Sommers
Initial reports had suggested the possibility of Jhon Torres and Luken Baker being included in the deal, but this did not come to fruition.
The Rockies’ need for an additional lefty is well known. Gomber has 104 big league innings to his name in two seasons of work (2018 and 2020). He holds a career 3.72 ERA during in his time with the Cardinals, posting a 1.86 in his 29 innings last year.
Gomber relies on a fastball/curveball mix, working in an occasional slider as well as a righty-exclusive changeup. 15 of his 43 MLB appearances have been starts, but his immediate placement in the bullpen could address Colorado’s left-handed reliever deficiency. Here he is in action:
Mark Saxon of The Athletic reported last weekend that Arenado had expressed interest in joining the Cardinals:
Nolan Arenado had texted at least one #STLCards player more than once over the past year to tell him how much he’d like to play in St. Louis. The Cardinals have always been motivated to get guys who want to be here.
— Mark Saxon (@markasaxon) January 30, 2021
Arenado is still owed $199 million on his contract. While Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that the Rockies will send money in the $50 million range to the Cardinals as part of the deal, the details are not yet known.
The deal concludes a turbulent relationship between Arenado and general manager Jeff Bridich.
Arenado’s former Rockies’ teammate, shortstop Trevor Story, revealed his initial reaction to the trade to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post.
#Rockies Trevor Story: Nolan’s one of my best friends, baseball aside, so this hurts. He’s the best 3B in the game. I’m sad and a little frustrated to be honest. All I can do is focus on playing the best baseball I can for my teammates and the fans, they deserve it.
— Patrick Saunders (@psaundersdp) February 2, 2021
Bridich, along with Rockies’ owner Dick Monfort, are scheduled to meet with the media on Tuesday at 10 AM MT.
Purple Row will have extensive coverage of this story tomorrow.