St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado won’t be opting out of his contract, the team announced.
Arenado will pocket $144 million over the five years left on his deal after declining to trigger an opt-out clause. He will make $35 million in 2023, $35 million in 2024, $32 million in 2025, $27 million in 2026, and $15 million in 2027 from the eight-year, $260-million pact he originally signed with the Colorado Rockies in February 2019.
Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak flew to California to meet with Arenado last Monday to discuss the seven-time All-Star’s future, according to The Athletic’s Katie Woo.
Arenado is coming off arguably the best season of his career. The 31-year-old’s 7.3 fWAR and 151 wRC+ were the highest totals of his 10-year run in the majors. He went deep 30 times while posting an .891 OPS over 148 games. There’s also a very good chance he adds a 10th straight Gold Glove to his list of accolades.
