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Hoo boy. Nolan Arenado, the star third baseman who is a five-time All-Star, seven-time Gold Glover and who’s led the National League in dingers three times in his seven Major League seasons, is mad at the Colorado Rockies.
That would seem weird a year after he signed an eight-year contract extension worth $260 million with the franchise he’s called home for his entire career. But nope! It’s an understatement to say Arenado and the Rockies aren’t seeing eye-to-eye at the moment, so let’s break down the situation.
What’s going on here?
After two straight postseason appearances, the Rockies finished 71-91 in 2019. Suddenly, at MLB’s annual Winter Meetings, Arenado’s name came up a bunch in trade rumblings, perhaps because the third baseman sounded pretty disappointed in a September interview with The Athletic:
“These guys have a great opportunity to show what they have and go into spring training with the upper hand. They should take every game seriously,” Arenado said. “And I need to lead by example.
“But it sucks that that’s what it feels like,” he said. “It feels like a rebuild.”
What happened next?
There were reports that the Cardinals, Braves and other teams were interested, but nothing really came of that, perhaps because of that ginormous contract attached to his name.
So general manager Jeff Bridich told The Denver Post that “we have listened to teams regarding Nolan and really nothing has come of it” and “we are going to move forward pretty much as we expected, with Nolan in the purple and black and as our third baseman.”
That seems fine.
It did! Until Arenado texted this MLB.com:
“There’s a lot of disrespect from people there that I don’t want to be a part of. You can quote that.”
Whoa.
Yeah!
It seems like star players are occasionally discussed in trade rumors all the time. What’s so different here?
Something bigger, according to more from MLB.com:
In reaction to Bridich’s announcement, Arenado elaborated.
“You ask what I thought of Jeff’s quotes and I say I don’t care what people say around there,” Arenado said. “There is a lot of disrespect.”
Asked what was said that he found particularly disrespectful, Arenado said, “No. I won’t get into the details.”
Arenado clarified his statement later, adding, “I’m not mad at the trade rumors. There’s more to it.”
My take: maybe he’s mad that the Rockies didn’t do much in the offseason, which is bad news for a team with a rotation that struggled a lot last season.
What could be next?
Arenado could publicly demand a trade — assuming his disgruntled statements above aren’t the beginnings of that move — which could be trouble for Colorado. Or he could hammer this out with management and just play for the Rockies until after the 2021 season, when he has an opt-out clause that winter.
