There’s been no shortage of trade rumors in this baseball offseason. Those whispers actually turning into transactions, however, has been a different story.
It’s been another weird MLB offseason. While the free-agent market wasted no time kicking into high gear after a couple of winters dominated largely by dormancy, a potentially robust trade market has been slow to move. Some of the sport’s biggest stars have been mentioned in trade rumors, and we haven’t seen anyone pull the trigger — yet.
Which is a long of way saying we probably shouldn’t read too much into this, but MLB.com’s Jon Morosi reported Monday morning that Colorado Rockies superstar third baseman Nolan Arenado is now more likely to be traded than Boston Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts or Cleveland Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor.
Now, that can change at any moment. At different points this offseason, it looked like a Lindor trade was inevitable. The Indians and Los Angeles Dodgers reportedly have discussed a trade for the All-Star infielder, but that has yet to happen. Then, as those talks reportedly fell apart, another report indicated a Dodgers-Red Sox trade centered around Betts was more likely.
Yet, here we are in the middle of January, and both Lindor and Betts remain in Cleveland and Boston, respectively.
As for Arenado, it’s still somewhat surprising to see Colorado reportedly looking to move him one year after giving him a massive contract extension. But Morosi on Sunday actually cited multiple executives who believed Arenado was more likely to move than Betts and Lindor, while Morosi also reported the St. Louis Cardinals had “preliminary” trade talks with the Rockies about Arenado.
The Texas Rangers also seemed like a possible landing spot for Arenado, but that was also before the Rangers signed free-agent third baseman Todd Frazier. But we probably shouldn’t totally count out the Rangers on the Arenado front, as it was (again) Morosi who reported over the weekend that Texas could still swing a trade and play Frazier at first base.
