Nolan Arenado returning to his Rockies' form with Cards
While his production seems modest right now, Drew Silva advises fantasy managers that Nolan Arenado will continue to grow into Busch Stadium and soon regain the prolific offensive form we saw in Colorado.
Video Transcript
DREW SILVA: In retrospect, the Rockies would have been wise to part ways with General Manager Jeff Bridich sometime in 2020, or even earlier, well before the Nolan Arenado trade went down. Bridich and Arenado reportedly butted heads over Arenado's final few seasons in Colorado. And Bridich suddenly stepped down from his role in late April of this year, three months after dealing the star third baseman to the Cardinals for, well, not a whole lot in return.
Nobody's expecting Arenado to be the 40-homer, 120 RBI kind of fantasy monster that he was in Colorado. Coors Field is maybe the most hitter friendly environment in the majors and Busch Stadium has been playing lately as an extreme pitcher's park. But the early returns have been pretty encouraging overall.
Through his first 32 games with St. Louis, Arenado has an .824 OPS with five home runs, nine doubles, and 22 RBIs. That works out to a 27 home run, 48 double, and 114 RBI pace, which, when you consider park factors, is about in line with any reasonable projection for his 2021 out year.
Arenado also has two curtain calls already from the best fans in baseball after logging zero curtain calls across his first eight years in Denver, and that's what really matters, of course.