The St. Louis Cardinals have already traded one player with a no-trade clause this offseason and it sounds like another may be open to a deal.

Sonny Gray was traded to the Boston Red Sox. It’s been known for a long time that Nolan Arenado — who has a no-trade clause — could be on the move this offseason. The wild card, though, has been Willson Contreras. He, like Gray and Arenado, has a no-trade clause. But he has been adamant, dating back to last offseason, that he wanted to stick around in St. Louis.

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Contreras even made that point at the end of the season. But The Athletic’s Katie Woo reported on Tuesday that the slugger is “open to trade offers.”

“The most frenzied week of the winter is near. MLB’s annual Winter Meetings begin Monday in Orlando, and the St. Louis Cardinals figure to be one of the more active teams in the trade market,” Woo wrote on Tuesday. “They also have another name to consider shopping. Despite saying at the end of the season that he’d prefer to stay with the Cardinals, Willson Contreras is open to trade offers and has become more willing to waive his full no-trade clause for the right fit, multiple league sources told The Athletic.

Two teams the Cardinals should call quicklyEmpty heading

“Contreras has two years and $36.5 million remaining on the five-year, $85 million contract he signed ahead of the 2023 season, along with a club option worth $17.5 million in 2028. This will not necessarily change the Cardinals’ order of operations, but they will continue to gauge interest on Contreras and present the 10-year veteran with the option to approve a trade, should one arise.”

If the Cardinals are going to move the three-time All-Star, two teams that they should call immediately are the Red Sox and the New York Mets.

Red Sox
Boston and St. Louis aren’t strangers to one another. The Cardinals traded Tyler O’Neill to the Red Sox ahead of the 2024 season, Steven Matz to Boston ahead of the 2025 trade deadline, and most recently Gray. Boston is a team that has questions at first base right now. The Red Sox have Triston Casas, but he missed most of the 2025 season. Even if he is healthy in 2026, pairing the lefty with the righty-hitting Contreras could be a good idea, especially if there’s space at designated hitter as well.

Chaim Bloom helped to build the Red Sox into what they are right now by significantly improving their farm system. Gray brought a good return, Contreras’ arguably should be even better.

Mets
Contreras has two seasons left on his five-year, $87.5 million deal plus a club option for 2028. That’s likely less money and certainly fewer years than Pete Alonso should get on the open market. If the Mets want to go hunting for big fish elsewhere, like Kyle Tucker, trading for someone like Contreras wouldn’t be much of a drop-off from Alonso but definitely cheaper.

Alonso is a better slugger, but Contreras has plenty of pop and showed promise defensively at first base in 2025 as well.