Report: Is Nolan Arenado Blocking Alex Bregman's Bargaining Power?

It sounds like 10-time Gold Glover Nolan Arenado, on the trade block in St. Louis, could be blocking 3B Alex Bregman's bargaining power in his free agent negotiations with teams.

According to Ken Rosenthal recently in The Athletic, it might be hard for a team to justify giving Bregman the hundreds of millions that he wants, when they could just pivot and trade for Arenado, with much less left on this contract.

Is it possible the availability of St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado is clogging the market for free agent Alex Bregman?
The Cardinals, in their negotiations with the Houston Astros on an Arenado trade, were willing to include $5 million per season, leaving the Astros with approximately a three-year, $49 million commitment.

Those kinds of numbers would obviously be much more palatable to any team, not just the Astros, than giving Bregman—albeit three years younger than Arenado—something in the neighborhood of $200 million, which is what he's said to be seeking.

In the end, Arenado blocked the potential deal to Houston, using his no-trade clause.

But teams are aware of those kind of numbers, and that could make it difficult for Bregman to get his bag.

Both third basemen have seen their numbers decline over the past three seasons, though Bregman's are still a bit better. But with a far less weighty commitment of just three years, the eight-time All-Star Arenado would probably be most teams' choice.

And that has got to have Bregman's agent Scott Boras fuming.