What would it take to land Arenado?
With Arenado continuing to improve in the prime of his career, why would the Rockies be so eager to move him one year after locking him in long-term? Because the Rockies really don’t have much else to look forward to. Baseball America rated the Rockies’ farm system 25th in their August update and with Brendan Rodgers struggling to begin his career, Colorado has to find a way to improve to make up a 35-game difference between themselves and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
While trading Arenado isn’t probably their best-case scenario, it makes sense if they can get the right deal. What that would take is a plethora of top prospects and perhaps an MLB ready player as Forbes’ Phil Rogers stated that the Chicago White Sox would have to give up Yoan Moncada or super prospect Luis Robert to even think about making a deal.
MLB.com’s Jon Morosi echoed that sentiment, reporting that the Rockies asked the St. Louis Cardinals for one of their top four prospects and potentially Matt Carpenter in any deal. While the Rockies reportedly didn’t mandate Carpenter had to be in the deal, they’re not ready to completely gut their MLB roster just to trade Arenado for the fun of it.
That led ESPN’s Jeff Passan to say that talks between Colorado and St. Louis haven’t been productive and it’s unlikely Arenado would be dealt in the short term. But Morosi hinted that things may have heated up, suggesting a deal involving Arenado was more likely than one involving Boston’s Mookie Betts or Cleveland’s Francisco Lindor.