A melancholy end to what could have been for Cardinals and Nolan Arenado

About this episode

The episode discusses the emotional impact of the Cardinals trading Nolan Arenado and the implications for the team's future.

If you sensed some melancholy from both the Cardinals as they announced trading a Hall of Fame-caliber player to Arizona and also from that player, Nolan Arenado, as he described feeling "in the way" where once he expected to retire, that's fair. There was that disappointment on both sides as what could have been came to an end. In a brand new episode of the Best Podcast in Baseball, St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold and editor Nathan Mills discuss the conclusion of a trade more than a year in the making and potentially a streak that stretches back more than a century. For more than 100 consecutive years, without pause, the Cardinals have had a Hall of Fame player or manager in uniform with the team, and that streak could end with 2025. Or, it will be a young player who has yet to emerge as an All-Star who we'll discover in hindsight continued it. The Cardinals reach their annual Winter Warm-up after trading their third namebrand All-Star of the offseason and facing a difficult task of selling a team to a fan base that already had a record-low appetite for purchasing tickets. The pulse of the fans will be on display during the weekend Warm-up, but less clear…

People in this episode

Hosts: Derrick Goold, Nathan Mills

Topics covered

• Cardinals trade
• Nolan Arenado
• baseball history
• fan engagement
• future of the team

Keywords

• Cardinals
• Nolan Arenado
• trade
• baseball
• fan base
• Winter Warm-up
• Hall of Fame

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cardinals

Places: Arizona

More episodes of Best Podcast in Baseball

• A conversation with NLBM president Bob Kendrick: Storytelling's power to inspire baseball with its past · June 8, 2026 · 42 min
• 101 life lessons from the dugout and a few extra from the CBA negotiation room · June 5, 2026 · 52 min
• The seams that bind St. Louis baseball and the history of the game itself: A Glove Story · June 3, 2026 · 52 min
• Both humbled by Brewers, Cardinals and Cubs clash for 1st time in series vital for hosts · May 29, 2026 · 1h 13m
• Central Casting: What role will Cardinals play in making the division a real race? · May 22, 2026 · 57 min
• Tarps off! BPIB is back on: Have Cardinals found their voice as a contender? · May 19, 2026 · 1h 10m