Notorious SF Giants tormentor has returned to NL West with D-backs

He's back. Nolan Arenado, a man who has tormented the SF Giants for basically his entire big league career, has been traded from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Arizona Diamondbacks where he can torment the Giants once more.

Jeff Passan of ESPN confirmed the news after Katie Woo of The Athletic reported the two sides were close to a deal. Even though Arenado is on the decline, he will probably still find a way to give the Giants headaches.

SF Giants killer Nolan Arenado is back in NL West with Diamondbacks

It seemed clear for some time that the Cardinals were going to trade Arenado. St. Louis is in the process of a rebuild and was looking to offload some of its larger contracts. They already got rid of Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras, so Arenado was the next likely domino to topple.

There was some thought that the Cardinals would trade Arenado last offseason but that did not come to pass. He remained with the Cardinals and had what, for him at least, would be considered a down year.

He slashed .237/.289/.377 with 12 home runs and 52 runs batted in across 107 games. He may not be the same player he once was, but he is an experienced veteran so maybe he could return to form with the D-Backs.

Giants fans cannot love the idea of having to face the guy who had made a habit of owning the Giants. In 156 career games versus San Francisco, he has slashed .286/.344/.532 with 34 home runs and 115 runs batted in.

A lot of that damage was done earlier in his career when he was with the Colorado Rockies, but he continued to own the Giants even when he joined the Cardinals. Both he and Paul Goldschmidt, another guy who has feasted on the Giants in his career, seemed to turn it on whenever they faced the Giants no matter what uniform they were wearing or whether they were in a cold slump at the plate.

Even amidst Arenado's rough 2025 season, he made sure to blast a home run at Oracle Park in the second-to-last series of the year.

It would come as no shock if Arenado hit .220 next season but somehow five of his 15 home runs came against the Giants. Some guys just lock in against certain teams and Arenado is one of those guys.