One day after a report surfaced that the St. Louis Cardinals had eased off efforts to find a trade partner for Nolan Arenado, a new wrinkle in the saga to find the third baseman a new home for 2025 has emerged. The Cardinals have reentered talks with a team that appeared out of the running for the eight-time All-Star back in December.

While a deal sending Arenado to the Houston Astros appeared dead in the water just two months ago, Houston has shown renewed interest in acquiring the Cardinals’ slugger, according to MLB.com.

The Astros were considered prime contenders to land the soon-to-be 34-year-old veteran who’s entering his 13th season in baseball. In fact, Houston was closing in on a deal to land the player before Arenado blocked the trade.

Arenado has a no-trade clause in his contract, which makes moving him all the more difficult when you consider his age, his salary and the decline in offensive production he’s experienced over the last two years.

Could the Cardinals trade Nolan Arenado this offseason after all?

Sep 18, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado (28) dives but is unable to field a ground ball hit by Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Billy Cook (not pictured) during the ninth inning at Busch Stadium.
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However, Arenado did give Cardinals’ president of baseball operations John Mozeliak a list of five teams he was interested in playing for. That list included the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Dodgers, the Padres and, yes, the Astros.

Although Arenado specifically mentioned the Astros as a team he’d be willing to waive his no-trade clause for, he surprisingly shot down a deal to Houston. MLB.com’s report indicates that the reason behind his reluctance to follow through with a trade to the Astros was due to the team trading Kyle Tucker to the Chicago Cubs, a move the 10-time Gold Glove winner interpreted as a signal that Houston wouldn’t be competing for a championship in the near term.

However, since the Cardinals/Astros trade debacle, Houston signed veteran first baseman Christian Walker, a move Arenado viewed as evidence the team was, in fact, trying to win it all in 2025, according to MLB.com. So, the Arenado-to-Houston talks are back on. At the moment anyway.

The Cardinals appeared to be content to keep Arenado. Or, at the very least, they were fine beginning the season with him on the roster, starting at the hot corner for St. Louis as he has in each of the last four seasons since being traded to the Cardinals from the Colorado Rockies in 2021.