Nolan Arenado responds to Yankees fans' trade requests, reveals real reason for road trip

If you were a New York Yankees fan who read Wednesday morning's lineups and hoped Nolan Arenado would be sticking around permanently rather than leaving with the St. Louis Cardinals, sorry to disappoint.

If you were a Yankees fan who was skeptical of a potential Arenado addition, but was hoping to watch him perform admirably in a rare spring road showcase ... sorry again. It's the first week of spring training. You were never likely to get the best of him.

Still, Arenado making the three-plus hour trip to bat cleanup at Yankees camp felt a bit noteworthy on Wednesday, if not outright odd. Stars don't usually get on the bus. Stars don't typically traverse the state of Florida while they're still working out the kinks. It wasn't wild to assume there might've been a bit of personal motivation to perform here, at the very least, in front of one of the teams on Arenado's potential trade wishlist.

Of course ... it was also just one game. It was also just one game that didn't count. If Arenado's plan was to change the course of trade history, he was going to have to drill three home runs and rob one in his hat (difficult to do from third base).

According to Arenado himself postgame, while he heard trade-related shouts from the pro-Yankees crowd, showcasing himself in front of Brian Cashman was never his intention. Instead, he merely wanted to visit Paul Goldschmidt and DJ LeMahieu, as well as stay on a regular training schedule.

Yankees fans asked Nolan Arenado about trade rumors, but he just wanted to see Paul Goldschmidt and DJ LeMahieu

Probably the most noteworthy consequence to arise from this whole mess was the reminder that Arenado and LeMahieu are friends from their time with the Rockies. Theoretically, that would make the 10-time Gold Glover even less likely to obnoxiously push for a Yankees trade to replace the very same man he intended to visit.

LeMahieu doesn't seem likely to be the Opening Day starter, especially considering he hasn't received any reps yet in game action. Still, though, that's an uncomfortable wrinkle that hasn't been addressed much.

As for the heckles from the fans in the stands? Arenado was right; if he wanted to put his best foot forward, this wasn't it. He went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, blown away by Will Warren (who's probably off the table in any hypothetical trade now, too). So we did accomplish something.