TWO DAYS LATER Before his 2021 season ended, Nolan Arenado found himself standing on a practice field, shirtless, with decals affixed to his torso and a bat in his hands. The third baseman from another planet for the St. Louis Cardinals was in Oceanside, California, at the Titleist Performance Institute, batting practice on a field more often filled with golf balls than baseballs. He was ready to embark on the biggest winter of his life, one in which he chased across the country for the one thing that for so long was never in doubt: his greatness.
Arenado’s tour of baseball began after a season that registered as highly successful by traditional measures. He hit 34 home runs, drove in 105 runs, won his ninth straight Gold Glove Award and made his sixth All-Star team. And yet, too many times for his liking, Arenado found himself in positions of discomfort and uncertainty, the excellence that defined him was fleeting.
“It was brutal,” Arenado said. “I’d have a good game. The next day, I just couldn’t feel it again. Like, man, what’s going on? This is baseball. It’s going to happen. But it was too fast. Listen, I’m not the best hitter in the game. But I know when I feel good. And that wouldn’t last long.”
Thus began the journey that has brought him here: hitting .311/.370/.582 with seven home runs and 27 RBIs in 32 games. One month into the 2022 season, Arenado is once again one of the best players in Major League Baseball. He is, as the Cardinals prepare to host the San Francisco Giants on Sunday Night Baseball, fourth in the MLB in wins above replacement and looks much more like the Rockie superstar of the late 2010s than the player he was. last year in his first season with St. Luis.
