St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado knows his team can’t have a repeat of 2023 after finishing last in the NL Central despite being the favorite to win the division.
“There’s nothing good about last year,” Arenado said Friday during his first day at camp, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Benjamin Hochman. “I mean, not to be rude, but I don’t want to talk about last year. There was nothing good about last year. We’ve got to be better than last year – and we don’t have to be a little bit better, we’ve got to be way better than last year.”
The Cardinals went 71-91 to finish 21 games behind the division-winning Milwaukee Brewers. St. Louis’ disappointing campaign came on the heels of a 93-win season in 2022.
Arenado, 32, also saw a big drop in production after finishing as an NL MVP finalist two years ago. The eight-time All-Star posted his worst season since his rookie year in 2013, slashing .266/.315/.459 with 26 homers and 93 RBIs over 144 games. He also failed to win a Gold Glove for the first time in his 11-year career after not even being named a finalist for the defensive award.
“It was a mixture of (feeling) kind of sad about it but also proud of the streak I had,” Arenado said. “I mean, it was a cool streak. It was 10 years. But I would say that it bothers me that people think I’m not a good fielder anymore, I guess.”
Arenado is still owed $109 million through 2027.
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