St. Louis Cardinals Don't Want To Pay Majority of Salary for Rumored Phillies Target

It sounds like the St. Louis Cardinals don't want to give salary relief in a potential trade involving their star, meaning the Philadelphia Phillies could no longer be interested.

Sep 1, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado (28) at Yankee Stadium / Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

The quiet offseason for the Philadelphia Phillies is expected to remain that way until Opening Day.

Coming in, many analysts expected them to be aggressive in free agency and the trade market to boost this roster after clear holes solidified itself during their frustrating NLDS loss against the New York Mets.

With an owner willing to spend and an executive who has been aggressive throughout his career when building contending rosters, this seemed like a winter where the Phillies were primed to make another splash.

However, the financial situation they are in has largely limited them to making fringe roster moves and taking chances on high risk, high reward players.

And because their opinion of Alec Bohm has reportedly caused them to ask for borderline laughable return packages from teams who have inquired about the availability of the 2024 All-Star third baseman, it seems like he'll be on the roster in 2025 despite being shopped for the entirety of the offseason.

If a headlining move is going to get pulled off by Philadelphia, the most likely way that happens is if they find a trade partner for Bohm.

The St. Louis Cardinals seemed like an obvious suitor with them looking to enter a rebuild by offloading some of their current stars, and with the Phillies looking for more consistency at third base, swapping out Bohm for Nolan Arenado seemed like it would be a good match.

The likely future Hall of Famer has a no-trade clause, but Philadelphia is reportedly one of six teams who he would waive that for, and considering he already exercised it to veto a deal with the Houston Astros, it seems like he is serious about that.

But for it to make sense for the Phillies, they would also want some salary relief from the Cardinals.

Arenado is owed $74 million over the next three years, and with him regressing from having an OPS+ of 151 in 2022 to 108 and 101 the past two seasons, there are questions about his viability going forward.

St. Louis was reportedly interested in offering some relief in that proposed deal with the Astros, but Houston would have still taken on the majority of the money, something Philadelphia is likely looking to avoid.

And if that's the case, then a deal probably won't get done.

"The Cardinals will still actively try to trade Arenado, but they will be rather reluctant to eat a larger portion of his salary, as the whole point of trading Arenado is to off-load his contract," according to Will Sammon and Katie Woo of The Athletic.

Now, it should be noted the Cardinals could become desperate.

They are actively looking to shed payroll and are willing to ship expensive players out of town, so if they aren't able to find a suitor for Arenado who wants to pay the majority of his salary, there's a chance he stays in St. Louis and they trade away some of their other pieces.

Still, if the plan is to get younger, then having the 12-year veteran on the roster seems counterproductive.

The Phillies could wait it out and see if the Cardinals change their mind, getting salary relief to bring in a player who could be the missing piece as they search for a way to win the World Series.