The idea of the St. Louis Cardinals trading for third baseman Nolan Arenado, the face of the Colorado Rockies franchise, was first suggested on September 11, 2019, by a reporter. And he was not quoting any sources but merely ruminating. Ken Rosenthal’s headline (“After the team’s second-half collapse, would it be preposterous for Colorado to trade Nolan Arenado? Well…”) was as equivocal as it was breathless.
Yet here we are four months later with Arenado trade rumors turning the hot stove league into an inferno. This, despite the fact that Arenado was just signed by the Rockies last April.