ST. LOUIS -- Nolan Arenado has been through the spin cycle of returning to a former home ballpark before, so he has the benefit of experiential wisdom when it comes to handling the emotions of four games at Busch Stadium this week.
“Being 35 now [helps],” Arenado joked from the Diamondbacks' dugout before Monday's series opener . “I’m a little older now, so I’ll be OK. In ‘21, it was kind of a weird moment, obviously being there [in Colorado] for eight years. I’m gonna take it in. I know I’m coming toward the end. Back then in Colorado, I didn’t really take it in as much. Here I probably will just because it means a little different here. I’m really excited for the game to start.”
And Arenado singled in his first at-bat back in St. Louis, receiving a loud ovation from the fans as he came to the plate in the second inning. He also drove in the D-backs' first run with an RBI groundout in the sixth inning of their 3-2 loss.
“This place is pretty special, and they do things right here,” he said. “Nobody ever deserves stuff like that, but it meant a lot to me to get that from them.”
For Cardinals starter Andre Pallante, who had a chance encounter with Arenado at a Southern California baseball facility long before he embarked on his own pro career, welcoming back a legendary teammate was a special opportunity.
“Finally getting to face him in a big league game was pretty cool,” Pallante said. “Wish I could’ve got a strikeout, but you know, he’s a tough at-bat, and that’s just part of it. It’s a cool experience.”
After five seasons as a Cardinal, Arenado was traded to Arizona this winter for pitching prospect Jack Martinez. The deal came at a time when Arenado was prepared to move on, laser-focused on winning a championship as the Cardinals were preparing to reboot their own organization.
Fate and baseball, of course, would never allow the story to be told in quite such a linear fashion. Whatever the expectations around the clubs entering the season, St. Louis holds down the first Wild Card position in the National League. The Diamondbacks are 1 1/2 games back of the Cubs for the third Wild Card spot, four games back of the Cardinals.
If Arizona is going to get over that hump and into a playoff spot, it will be in no small part thanks to the on- and off-field contributions of its no-brainer Hall of Famer at third base.
“We tap into his expertise whenever we can,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said of Arenado. “We ask questions about certain things, like the field today, the opposition today. What’s been your experience in these moments when you’re treading water, you’re a .500 team, how do you get over the top? We go into his mind a little bit, the best way we can, and he’s so gracious with the time that he’ll give us.”
Learning to walk that path of being an open book of experience has been, by his own admission, a challenge for Arenado. He spoke Monday of not fully appreciating some of his experiences in St. Louis simply by virtue of the pressure he put on himself.
“I think that’s kind of the mistake I made,” Arenado acknowledged. “If I didn’t drive the runs in, I’d feel like we were gonna lose, like it’s my fault, even though I might’ve hit a home run early in the game or something … just stuff like that that I should’ve never [done]."
An aged Arenado, if a more wise Arenado, sounded like a familiar and contemplative figure to those in St. Louis who knew him best.
“It’s more understanding and appreciative of how this all works,” said Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, who was Arenado’s skipper in four of his five seasons in St. Louis. “Being able to take a step back and actually take some of that in as you get older and further in your career and actually understand the meaning behind all of it, and people just appreciating what you bring to the table over the years.”
What Arenado brought to the table as a Cardinal is three All-Star selections, two Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger and a third place NL MVP finish in 2022. It was that 2022 season to which Arenado returned in his recollections several times Monday, highlighting it as the period of time as a Cardinal which he remembers the most fondly.
It was less his achievements, though, than that of his teammates, and he described the awe of watching Albert Pujols chase down his 700th home run and seeing Paul Goldschmidt secure that season’s MVP. It was also Arenado’s most recent appearance in the postseason, and with time, he’s grown better able to appreciate the year’s accomplishments rather than rueing his team’s Wild Card Series exit at the hands of the eventual pennant-winning Phillies.
“The expectations going into [2023] were still really high after ‘22, and we didn’t live up to it,” Arenado said. “The season was bad from the jump, and so I put a lot of pressure on myself, because if I turned a thing around, or it was my fault why those things were happening. So I wish I didn’t do that, if I could go back.”
“I hope people understand the sacrifice it takes to be that good for that long,” Marmol said. “Even in years where it doesn’t go your way, the amount of work that takes place in order to at least try to get there. My hope is one, the reception is strong; and two, that he’s able to take a moment and take it in a little bit."
He can’t go back in body, but there is hope he might be able to in spirit. Arenado admitted he started to think about how the Busch Stadium crowd would receive him as the Diamondbacks’ plane approached the city Sunday evening.
“I think when they announced the starting lineup, that’s when I kind of felt it a little bit, because that’s when they kind of got loud,” Arenado said in the aftermath of the series-opening defeat. “Right when I was walking to the plate, leading off the inning, it was awesome. I mean, the announcer didn’t announce my name yet, and they were standing up already, so that was really cool.”
Brenden Schaeffer contributed additional reporting.