St. Louis Cardinals making same mistakes with Nolan Arenado as Rockies?

There is a familiar movie that could well be playing in the mind of Nolan Arenado as this offseason grinds along. It’s a movie that he saw play out with the Colorado Rockies and it did not have anything near a Hollywood ending for his time in Denver. And, at the moment, the sequel may not be looking much better now that he is wearing a St. Louis Cardinals uniform.

Are the St. Louis Cardinals making the same offseason mistakes in the eyes of Nolan Arenado that the Colorado Rockies made?

The lopsided trade that sent Arenado from Denver to St. Louis had been brewing long before the actual deal was done on February 1, 2021. Just two years earlier, Arenado had signed an eight-year, $260 million contract. With the Rockies coming off back-to-back postseason appearances, there were plenty of reasons to believe the future was bright in the Mile High City. However, Colorado still had areas to improve upon if the roster was going to bypass the powerhouses that lurked not only in the own division, but throughout the National League as well.

Those improvements, however, never came, leading to frustration on the part of Arenado.

“Promises were made when Nolan signed his deal, and then, it was as if they were never discussed,” one source who is close to Arenado told Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post in this article. “Nolan has become disillusioned with the focus and direction of the team.”

Now, after what has been a fairly quiet offseason in St. Louis outside of signing catcher Willson Contreras to a deal as a replacement for Yadier Molina behind the plate, are the Cardinals running the risk of making the same mistake as the Rockies did with Arenado?