BIOGRAPHY
Nolan Arenado was born on April 16, 1991, in Newport Beach, California. He is a third baseman in the MLB.
He attended El Toro High School in Lake Forest. In 2008, Arenado's junior year, El Toro won the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section championship. He was named to the Los Angeles Times' All-Star team after leading his division with a .456 batting average, 32 runs batted in (RBI), and 33 runs scored. He committed to attend Arizona State University (ASU) on a college baseball scholarship. The Colorado Rockies selected Arenado in the second round with the 59th overall selection of the 2009 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft. Rather than attend ASU, he signed with the Rockies, and made his professional baseball debut with the Casper Ghosts of the Rookie-level Pioneer League, where he batted .300.
He recorded his first three major league hits in his second game—including his first home run off of pitcher Josh Wall—in a 12–2 win versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. In his sixth game, he hit first major league grand slam and second career home run off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price. On October 29, 2013, Arenado became the first NL rookie to win a Rawlings Gold Glove Award at third base. On defense, Arenado won his third consecutive Gold Glove, and, for the first time, was the major league-wide winner among third basemen for both the Fielding Bible and the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Awards.
In his 2016 season, Arenado won his fourth consecutive Gold Glove at the third base position, becoming the first third baseman in MLB history to win four Gold Gloves in his first four seasons, as well as his second Silver Slugger, Fielding Bible and Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Awards. In his 2017 season, Arenado won his first Platinum Glove Award as the finest defensive member of all the National League, and a third succedent promotion of both the Fielding Bible and Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Awards for third base. He clinched fourth place in the NL MVP voting (the highest ranking of his career). In 2018, he won his sixth consecutive Gold Glove. He also won his second consecutive Rawlings Platinum Glove Award.
On November 3, 2019, Arenado earned his 7th consecutive Gold Glove Award.
On February 1, 2021, the St. Louis Cardinals acquired Arenado from the Rockies with $50 million in exchange for Austin Gomber, Mateo Gil, Tony Locey, Elehuris Montero and Jake Sommers. He hit his first home run as a Cardinal on March 29 at Great American Ball Park in a 9–6 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. He hit his first home run at Busch Stadium as a Cardinal in the team's home opener on April 8, a go-ahead two-run homer in a game in which the Cardinals won 3–1 over the Milwaukee Brewers. Arenado was named the National League's starting third baseman at the 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Denver. Arenado finished the 2021 season batting .255/.312/.494 with 34 home runs and 105 RBIs. Defensively, he led all National League third basemen in putouts (125), double plays (38), and range factor per game (2.66). He won the Gold Glove Award at third base, being one of five Cardinals (an MLB record) to win the award. Being his ninth consecutive Gold Glove, he tied Mike Schmidt for the most consecutive Gold Glove Awards by a National League third baseman.
On July 1, 2022, Arenado hit for his second career cycle in a 5–3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. He hit an RBI triple in the first inning, a two-run homer in the third inning, doubled in the sixth, and in the ninth, singled on a hard-hit grounder that caromed off third baseman Matt Vierling's glove. It was the 17th cycle in Cardinals history. The following game, Arenado hit the first of four consecutive home runs on July 2, 2022, the 11th such occurrence in major league history. Teammates Nolan Gorman, Juan Yepez and Dylan Carlson each followed suit off starter Kyle Gibson with two outs in the first inning. It was the first time that the Cardinals had accomplished the feat, and the first time that it occurred in the first inning. Arenado later won the game for St. Louis in the ninth inning with his second home run of the game, 7–6, which was also the 5,000th at bat of his career. Arenado was selected to represent the Cardinals at the All-Star Game in Los Angeles.
Arenado finished the 2022 season batting .293/.358/.533 with 30 home runs and 103 RBIs, making it seven seasons with 30+ home runs and 100+ runs batted in in his 10-year career. He had the lowest ground ball percentage of all major leaguers (29.7%). Defensively, Arenado led all third basemen with an ultimate zone rating of 13. He was awarded his tenth consecutive Gold Glove Award, tying with Ichiro Suzuki for the most consecutive Gold Gloves to start a career.
