Nolan Arenado 2026 Season Preview

The last time we checked in on third baseman Nolan Arenado he was shaking off a sluggish start with a torrid May performance, and that tear continued into June and July before he cooled over the final few weeks of the 2023 season.

No, that season wasn’t nearly as good as his 2022 campaign, which was arguably one of, if not the best of his career, a year in which he hit for the cycle – something no Cardinal has done since.

Yes, the decline in his OBP really hurt, but 2023 was still a solid showing for Arenado, as he remained mostly healthy and productive. However, there’s no way to sugar coat how much he’s regressed since then, as his counting cats took a dive in 2024, and he never hit worse than he did last season (even if he still has pop in the virtual world… see video below).

A struggling St. Louis club was obviously so desperate to get out from under Arenado’s contract (even though Colorado was still paying some of it) that it dealt the veteran to Arizona this winter. The return? A 2025 eighth round pick named Jack Martinez.

So Arenado has now been dealt twice over the course of a contract that was signed in 2019. Is this someone you can count on for Fantasy purposes or if you’re using Canadian sports betting services?

For what it’s worth, Arenado – whose jersey, shockingly, is still among the top sellers — managed a hit in his D-Back debut (and struck out once), but that doesn’t mean we’re suddenly rushing to the waiver wire to add him.

At this stage, he remains an extremely strong defender who can periodically remind us why he was once a Fantasy stud, but we have a hard time considering him even a backup option in standard sized leagues. Now, bear in mind that Arenado has shifted from a decent hitter’s park to one of the best, so there’s a chance he gets a boost in his numbers from this move. But is it enough to make him Fantasy relevant anymore? We’ll take a wait-to-see approach here.

If you do own him (assumedly because you’re in an NL-only league or a very deep format), for now consider Arenado bench fodder, someone you don’t want starting against top pitchers.

He’s definitely going to help turn Arizona into a top 10 fielding team, but his days as a 40-homer dude are ancient history, and judging by sub-.400 slugging percentages the last two years, he’s not even much of an extra-base producer any longer. Leave Arenado alone unless he forces you to do otherwise.

RotoRob Tune of the Day

British stand-up comic Eddie Izzard has been known as Suzy Eddie Izzard since 2023. In 1998, she released Dress to Kill, which featured this riff on “Italians and Fascists.”