Padres surprisingly make 8-time All-Star's list of preferred trade destinations

Teams all around the league are making national headlines as this year's Winter Meetings wind down. San Diego Padres fans wish their team was more involved in the action, but it seems they'll have to wait. On the other side of the coin, the St. Louis Cardinals have been loud and proud about their efforts to trade third baseman Nolan Arenado.

The club went 83-79 in 2024, which was only good for third place in the NL Central. Now that Paul Goldschmidt is set to depart in free agency, the Cardinals are ready to move on from Arenado, the other aging member of last year's corner infield. His massive contract is going to be difficult to move, but it's his no-trade clause that'll hold things up the most.

According to MLB.com's John Denton, Arenado's no-trade clause list is extensive and there are only a small amount of teams he would accept a trade to. As relayed by Denton, that list includes the Dodgers, Angels, Red Sox, Mets, Phillies ... and the Padres.

Padres find themselves on short list of Nolan Arenado-approved trade spots

Let's work on addressing the elephant in the room first: Manny Machado is not moving off of third base anytime soon. However, Arenado himself recently expressed a willingness to shift over to first base if a team that trades for him asks him to make the change. On the Padres, he'd have to move across the diamond but his bat would play much better at first base than Jake Cronenworth's.

Arenado, 33, is one of the best all-around third basemen in MLB history and likely has a spot in Cooperstown waiting for him once he becomes eligible. He's a 10-time Gold Glove Award winner, eight-time All-Star, and five-time Silver Slugger. His bat has trailed off a bit in recent years, but he's never put together a full season of below-average production.

Just this past year, the 12-year veteran hit 16 home runs with 71 RBI across 152 games played. His .272 batting average, .719 OPS and 101 OPS+ would work fine if it were any other player, but his down year was still a solid one, so there's still value in the player.

Since the Padres would likely have to take on a chunk of Arenado's salary, he may not cost much in a potential trade. San Diego is looking for more offense, so there's a world where it makes some sense for them to trade for him and insert him as their new first baseman moving forward. Since the Padres are coming off of a 93-win campaign, they're clearly right in the middle of their latest contention window, but it's up to them to determine whether he's worth the significant risk or not.