Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. spoke with reporters on Monday afternoon to conclude the organizations Winter Warm-Up weekend. Unsurprisingly, he touched on the teams biggest offseason storyline: the trade discu sions. Most notably, DeWitt said that the team wasnt motivated to cut payroll in another area if they cant line up an Arenado deal. No, I dont think so , he replied when asked if a failure to trade the third baseman meant they needed to slash spending elsewhere ( ). President Darren Pang Jersey of baseball operations John Mozeliak made over the weekend, suggesting that ownership was supporting a higher payroll than the front office initially expected because we havent been able to accomplish what we thought we would by now (on the trade market). Much of that is due to the no-trade rights of the Cards most expensive players. and each indicated they preferred to stay in St. Louis rather than waive their no-trade clauses. Arenado was more open to a trade in theory, though he nixed a deal to the Astros. That confirmed hed be particular about his next destination if he were to move. The Cardinals are on the hook for $64MM of the $74MM owed to Arenado over the next three seasons. The Rockies are responsible for $5MM annually over the next two years. A combined $12MM in salary over the next two seasons is deferred, reducing the Cardinals portion of the contracts remaining net present value to around $60MM. St. Louis has primarily focused on salary relief. The Astros were reportedly set to a sume at least $45MM of the remaining money had Arenado not vetoed the trade. With Houston quickly moving on, talks have quieted over the past month. Mozeliak made clear over the weekend that the Cardinals are still trying to line up a trade that makes sense for everyone involved. That has been more challenging than the organization anticipated. Neverthele s, theres still a chance for a late-offseason deal. writes that there are multiple teams that would be open to circling back on Arenado if the Cardinals are open to paying down a bigger portion of the contract. It remains to be seen whether St. Louis will eventually be willing to do that, but theyre generally downplaying the need to make trades to cut spending at this point. Theres also the matter of free agency delaying the trade market. remains unsigned and theres surely some overlap between the teams involved on the two players. Goold adds that some teams have called the Cardinals to see whether they can talk Gray off his opposition to waiving the no-trade clause. Theres nothing to suggest the righty is reconsidering that stance, though theres no harm for other teams in trying to change his mind. Gray is owed $65MM over the next two seasons on his backloaded three-year free agent deal. He turned in a 3.84 ERA over 28 starts during his first season with St. Louis. Joey Anderson Jersey