The Nolan Arenado situation has devolved into a bit of a mess. After a month of rumors, reports of “ongoing discussions” and good old-fashioned wild unsubstantiated speculation about Arenado possibly being shipped out of Colorado, Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich told the Denver Post on Monday that the team was

The Nolan Arenado situation has devolved into a bit of a mess. After a month of rumors, reports of “ongoing discussions” and good old-fashioned wild unsubstantiated speculation about Arenado possibly being shipped out of Colorado, Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich told the Denver Post on Monday that the team was “moving forward … with Nolan in the purple and black and as our third baseman.”

That would have been the end of a winter of speculation had it not been for … Nolan Arenado, who then texted MLB.com’s Thomas Harding to say, “There’s a lot of disrespect from people there that I don’t want to be a part of.” Arenado clarified that the disrespect was not because of the trade rumors, which, combined with the fact that his comments came just hours after Bridich’s statement, certainly makes it looks like he wants to be traded. And may be willing to do what it takes to force himself out.

While this might be enticing news for fans of, say, the Cardinals, Braves or any other team considering trading for Arenado, and while it’s always fun rubbernecking material to watch a player fighting with his team’s management, it’s worth pointing out: I’m not sure either Arenado or Bridich is wrong here. Arenado seems to want to be traded, and you can argue he has every reason to want to do so. Bridich doesn’t want to trade Arenado, and he may not be able to trade Arenado, and you can absolutely see where he’s coming from as well.

I know it is the style of the era to line up in one corner and spend all your energy lambasting and denigrating whoever’s in the other corner. But I’m pretty sure they’re both right.

Here are three reasons why each of them is totally correct in their current stance … and why that may make this deadlock even more difficult to break.

Nolan Arenado’s case for wanting to be traded

1. He signed his contract extension with the explicit understanding that he was signing with a winning franchise.

From 2014, Arenado’s second season in the Majors, to '18, the Rockies had gotten better every single season. They won 66 games in '14, 68 in '15, and 75 in '16 before breaking through with 87 and a National League Wild Card spot in '17 and winning 91 games and beating the Cubs in the NL Wild Card Game in '18. Those 91 wins were the second most in franchise history (92 in '09), and the Rockies were coming off signing star Charlie Blackmon to an extension. Arenado wasn’t just signing with Colorado; he was signing with a winner. Or so he thought. In '19, it all fell apart for the Rockies, losing 91 games despite another terrific season from Arenado. And how did the team react to that losing season? That brings us to …

2. The team has done nothing to improve itself over the offseason.

The understanding when Arenado signed his extension was that the Rockies were committed to winning over the course of his contract. But that is not what they have looked particularly committed to this offseason. They have not added a single Major League player this winter after Arenado told The Athletic toward the end of last season that the franchise “feels like a rebuild.” If you were Arenado, and you were told the Rockies were trying to compete, and then they bring back the exact team that lost 91 games last year, you’d be upset too. Particularly when you’re in the prime of your career and have only one Wild Card win to your postseason credit.

3. You don’t really treat superstars like this.

Arenado made it clear that he wasn’t upset that the Rockies were exploring trading him; he was upset that they didn’t trade him. And honestly, when is the last time a team actively shopped a player on the open market, with the player being fully aware (and actively supportive) of the shopping … and then he didn’t get traded? We’ve had players who may have been on the market ( Mookie Betts and Kris Bryant , for example) temporarily pulled off, but those are specifically because of their contract status: They’re going to be free agents soon, so their teams have to decide if they can’t ink either to an extension, whether or not they should be traded.

Arenado is signed up for the next seven seasons. The decision to shop him (a franchise icon, remember) and that contract is a Big Statement. Can they really just pull back from the brink like that? Remember when the Marlins, after Giancarlo Stanton turned down trades to the Cardinals and Giants, tried to claim they were going to hang onto Stanton after that? There was no way that was going to fly, and Stanton knew it. It is hardly best practice to shop a superstar around for a winter, not trade him and then pretend like everything’s going to be fine moving forward. Clearly, that’s what Arenado’s text to Harding was about. Remember, as The Athletic’s Nick Groke pointed out … the Rockies sort of did this exact same thing to Troy Tulowitzki five years ago. Arenado obviously remembers.

So, makes sense, yes? Arenado has every right to be mad. Except …

Jeff Bridich’s case for not trading Arenado

1. He just signed a big freaking contract, for crying out loud.

It is not as if Arenado has been dying on the vine for years now. He signed that eight-year deal less than 11 months ago. Sure, 2019 was a rough year, but you don’t sign an eight-year contract if you’re going to turn right around 11 months later and say, “Nope, it’s not working here, I want out.” Maybe the Rockies are doomed for the next seven years and maybe they’re not, but why would one bad season tell Arenado any more than five years of progress did?

Also, about that whole “rebuilding” thing. You know what “rebuilding” teams typically don’t do? Bring back the same roster as last year. The Rockies are not trading away their entire team but Arenado in order to compete five years from now. They’re trying to win with essentially the same roster they tried to win with last year … the same roster Arenado was excited enough about to sign an eight-year extension to play alongside. One can argue whether or not this Rockies strategy is wise, bringing back a bad team and hoping it will be better, but it certainly isn’t a sign of “rebuilding.” If Arenado wanted to play with these guys last year, why doesn’t he want to play with them now?

2. The Rockies tried to show they were committed to stars by signing Arenado in the first place. Trading him now would send the exact opposite message.

Someday, the Rockies are going to have another Nolan Arenado in their system, a homegrown budding superstar who can be the face of their franchise. And he’s going to say, “Well, I’m not going to sign long term with the Rockies, because superstars never stay with the Rockies.” (He’s going to be too young to remember Todd Helton in this analogy.) Arenado might say that franchises don’t treat superstars the way that the Rockies are treating him. But the Rockies might say that it’s the worst possible precedent to ship out their franchise player, the one they explicitly said they were building around, after merely one bad year. You want Colorado to become a place where stars want to play, not one that they leave the minute things get hard.

The Rockies believe Arenado is a player you can build around and wanted to treat him as such, and I present as evidence the fact that they signed him to an eight-year deal just 11 months ago. Trading him now makes Colorado look like a place you leave, not one you stay.

3. Arenado’s opt-out and no-trade clause make him pretty tough to trade.

Want to know why the Rockies are having a hard time trading a player as great as Arenado? That opt-out clause he has after the 2021 season.

Craig Edwards at FanGraphs explains it thusly: His opt-out serves to ruin any trade value he might have because he provides potentially two good years of play, but just as likely are seven seasons that are only slightly above average for more than $30 million per year.

Any team that would acquire Arenado would have to know they’re giving up a lot for a player who could just leave in two years anyway, thus making it less likely they’re going to pay market rate to Colorado to bring him in. The opt-out means the acquiring team doesn’t know which Arenado they’re getting: The one that’s so good that he leaves after two years, or one that’s not good enough in the next two years that he doesn’t opt out and leaves them on the hook for five more years at $30 million-plus. Someone might trade for Arenado for the next two years. Someone also might trade for Arenado for the next seven years. But someone will have to know which they’re trading for to adequately pay the Rockies what makes it worth it to trade him in the first place. And they don’t.

That opt-out was put in Arenado's contract -- by Bridich himself, oddly -- in the first place to make sure that the Rockies were going to be competitive. Arenado could leave if they weren’t. But now he wants out before then. Nolan: You either get to push for a trade after one year, or you get to opt-out after three … but wanting to do both has put him and the Rockies in an impossible stalemate. The opt-out was supposed to give him flexibility. But it has instead locked them both into place. (And then there is the no-trade clause, which allows Arenado to basically dictate his destination, making Bridich’s ability to trade him that much tougher.)

And that right there is why everyone’s fighting right now, why this has exploded. Both Arenado and Bridich are acting logically: They’re both correct in their current positions. That’s going to make this that much more difficult to resolve. After all: It’s always harder to solve a problem when both sides are in the right. Good luck untangling this whole mess, everyone.