ST. LOUIS – Programmed much of his career to play in pain and ignore minor injuries, Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado said if he had things to do all over again, he would have gone on the injured list before a finger injury ultimately led to a shoulder strain that sapped much of the power out of his bat.
“If I could do it all over again, I probably would have just taken time when I hurt my finger -- that was probably the biggest mistake I made,” said Arenado, who rejoined the Cardinals ahead of their 8-2 loss to the Giants for the second time since going on the injured list on Aug. 1 because of that right shoulder strain. “If I could go back, I’d just go on the IL for that [finger injury]. In Cleveland [from June 27-29], I was swinging the bat well and starting to feel good again, and then I jammed my finger and then it went downhill from there.
“I guess that was my biggest regret, but usually I would just play through [injury] things because that’s what you’re taught to do. That’s the mistake I made, and I guess I didn’t evaluate myself the proper way and that put me in a little bit of a slump.”
Arenado, 34, is hopeful of rejoining the Cardinals' starting lineup for the final two weeks of the season to show the club and himself that he can be productive again now that his shoulder is healed after five weeks away from the game. For now, Arenado plans to go through pregame workouts with the Cardinals over the weekend and then join the Double-A Springfield Cardinals on Tuesday for a six-day rehab assignment. If all goes well there with his health, he hopes to be back in the Cardinals’ lineup on Sept. 15 when they face the Reds at Busch Stadium.
“I’ve just got to get out there, show who I am, show that I’m healthy and start hitting the ball hard again,” said Arenado, who has two years remaining on his contract with the Cardinals. “Those are the things that I’m going to have to do and those are the things that I’m really focused on doing.”
Arenado, a 10-time Gold Glove Award winner and an eight-time All-Star, endured one of the worst stretches of career in terms of his power production before going on the Injured List, and his offensive numbers for 2025 are at an all-time low. Before leaving the team, the third baseman went through a 25-game drought without a home run -- a mark just short of his career worst of 29 games (done twice before).
For the season, Arenado’s batting average (.235), on-base percentage (.294), slugging percentage (.366) and OPS (.660) are at career lows for his 13 years in the big leagues. He missed two games in July with a sprain of the index finger on his right hand and he missed two more games July 12-13 before the break for the MLB All-Star Game because of irritation in the shoulder. As a result of the injury trouble, his production sagged to a .175 batting average, no homers and just two RBIs in July, before going on the IL to begin August.
“This year hasn’t felt great physically, but it isn’t like they were old-age injuries; it was jamming my finger and then the residual effect for my shoulder,” he said. “If I hit a ball off the end of the bat, it would vibrate the finger and it would swell up. Then, with the shoulder, I was just playing through tendinitis all the time. I wasn’t playing well, and I didn’t want to use that as an excuse. I played through worse injuries before, but with this one, I just couldn’t have the proper swing and adjustments that I needed.”
Arenado joked that the games that he will play in Springfield will be his first in the Minor Leagues since he went on a rehab assignment in 2014 while he was a member of the Rockies.
“I’ve been fortunate with health most of my career, so I try to look at this as something that’s not that bad,” Arenado said.