Nolan Arenado Rawlings Profile

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Colorado Rockies’ fourth-year third baseman Nolan Arenado is at Salt River Fields this month for the Rockies’ Cactus League spring training camp feeling good, brimming with confidence and looking forward to a quickly approaching Opening Day. When a young ballplayer is coming off a breakout season like the one Arenado enjoyed in 2015, it’s easy for him to have an extra bounce in his step and an extra-wide smile across his face.

While the Rockies were once again relegated to a last-place finish in the National League West last season, Arenado was enjoying a career changing year, one that put the 24-year-old Californian in the same discussion with today’s brightest young stars like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Kris Bryant and Francisco Lindor.

The 6-foot-2, 205-pound right-handed throwing and swinging Arenado led the National League with 42 home runs and 130 RBI while playing in a career-high 157 games, and produced a slash line of.287/.323/.575. He won his third Rawlings Gold Glove Award in three big-league seasons, was named to the NL All-Star team for the first time and won his first Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award.

“I can build off that. There are always ways you can get better and that’s what I’m trying to do,” Arenado said during a conversation with Perfect Game Thursday morning from inside the Rockies’ spacious clubhouse at Salt River Fields.

“Obviously, last year was special with the home runs and the RBIs and I don’t know if I can do that again but I believe I can come close,” he said. “I know I can have some success in different ways again. I’m just trying to find ways to get better and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Arenado is having a terrific spring. He had played in nine games before Colorado’s matchup with Trout and the Los Angeles Angels in a St. Patrick’s Day matinee at the beautiful main stadium at the SRF sprawling spring training complex the Rockies share with the Arizona Diamondbacks. In those nine games, he went 14-for-24 (.585) with a pair of doubles, two home runs and eight RBI.

“The spring’s been pretty good so far even though I have had some lucky hits,” Arenado said. “But I’m seeing the ball all right and my whole focus is getting ready for April 4 (Opening Day); that’s still my whole goal is to make sure I’m ready for that and so far it’s been going pretty good.”

The climb to his first MLB All-Star season has been a sure and steady one, and Arenado has worked hard for everything he’s attained to this point. He prepped at El Toro High School in Lake Forrest, Calif., and had the good fortune early in his high school career to hook up with the late Mike Spiers and the ABD Bulldogs organization.

It was a partnership that benefitted player and organization equally, with Spiers helping Arenado get a scholarship from Arizona State and eventually be selected in the second-round of the 2009 MLB Amateur Draft. For his part, Arenado helped the ABD Bulldogs to the championship at the 2008 PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla.

“I learned everything (from Spiers), mostly about going into the draft right out of high school or going to college,” Arenado said. “He taught me a lot and he helped me a lot and I got a lot of exposure because of him; that really helped me out and I couldn’t thank him enough. He was someone that once I got drafted I’d always get back to and talk to because he was someone who helped me get there. I love him and I love ABD for helping me get that chance.”

Arenado actually played with ABD twice in Jupiter (2007 and 2008) and was with Spiers and the Bulldogs at both the 2008 17u and 18u PG WWBA National Championships in Marietta, Ga. Those experiences taught the teenager about the rigors of the game and what it takes to get ready to play on an every-day basis.

“You played in the heat, you were playing in different weather; it was just constant,” Arenado said. “I don’t know how many games we played a year but we played a lot, and it was a lot fun. We were going to Georgia, we were going to Jupiter, Florida, and all these different places and it definitely made me a better baseball player.”

Perfect Game showcases also became a part of Arenado’s summertime routine. He first attended the 2007 PG Rising Juniors National Showcase (now the PG Junior National Showcase) in San Bernardino, Calif., and then was named to the Top Prospect List at both the 2008 California Underclass Showcase in Riverside, Calif., and the 2008 PG Sunshine West Showcase in Chula Vista, Calif.

Next up came the biggest showcase stage of his young career when he accepted an invitation to attend the 2008 PG National Showcase, held that year at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. At the conclusion of the event, Arenado received a 9.5 PG Grade (10.0 is the highest) along with this scouting report:

“Arenado has a strong build and fluid actions in the infield with arm strength. He has a smooth swing with serious power potential. He has good strength in his swing and shows good hitting tools all around. He made good contact in the games. He is a slightly below average MLB runner but runs the bases well. Nolan is also a good student.” PG scouts may have been impressed. Arenado, not so much.

“I really didn’t feel like I performed real well but I was really nervous,” Arenado recalled Thursday. “I didn’t have a lot of confidence that I could compete with those guys who were the top prospects. I should have had a different mindset about things and looking back on it I know that I could have.

“But you live and you learn and that was just a learning experience for me,” he continued. “I had never had to travel and go and showcase my talents to a bunch of people and it was a little nerve-racking. But I learned from it, I grew from it and it definitely helped me out.”

His two trips to Jupiter, on the other hand, bring back nothing but pleasant memories: “Jupiter was a great experience for me.  I loved it; everything about it was amazing,” Arenado said. “We won (the championship) one year, and it was so much fun. It was a great time playing against great players that I still see around in the major leagues sometimes; it makes it a lot better.”

The Rockies selected Arenado in the second-round of the 2009 MLB Amateur Draft right out of El Toro HS and he immediately set out on his minor league career. He spent all or parts of five seasons in the minors before making his big-league debut on April 28, 2013, as a 22-year-old. He played in 133 games that season and slashed .267/.301/.405 with 29 doubles, 10 home runs and 52 RBI. He won his first Rawlings Gold Glove and finished seventh in the NL Rookie of the League balloting.

Arenado played in 111 games in 2014, slashing .287/.328/.500 with 34 doubles, 18 home runs and 61 RBI, and won his second Rawlings Gold Glove. That led into his monster 2015 campaign that left Rockies’ manager Walt Weiss scratching his head while wondering why his star third baseman could finish no higher than eighth in the MVP balloting.

“I think Nolan is the MVP because he impacts the game on both sides of the ball,” Weiss said in a Colorado Rockies video recorded and posted online last October. “It’s unfortunate that when people talk about an MVP all they do is look at the offensive numbers; that’s it. I don’t know why that is and maybe if he played on a playoff-caliber club, I understand that. But defense never gets talked about and this guy changes the game with his defense virtually every night.”

Weiss was on the hottest of all managerial seats at the conclusion of last season but was able to hang onto his job despite another dismal season in Denver. In the three seasons Arenado has been with the big club, the Rockies went a combined 208-278 (.428 winning percentage) and finished in last place in the NL West in two of those three years. Incredibly, they escaped the cellar in 2014 despite winning just 66 games; Arizona won only 64 that year.

Arenado was among Weiss’s biggest supporters, telling Nick Groke of The Denver Post: “At the end of the day, we weren’t very good this year. We haven’t been very good. The blame doesn’t go to him. He puts the best guys out there and we need to go perform. We weren’t able to do that this year. Hopefully, we’ll have some guys next year ready to play and give him a better chance to win.”

He sounded upbeat on Thursday when asked what the mood was like inside the Rockies’ spring training clubhouse: “We’ve got some new guys and they’ve been great, and people are getting better. I don’t know what’s going to happen – there are a lot of unknowns – but guys are getting better and it’s been very nice so far.”

On April 4, not far from here at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix, Nolan Arenado will begin his fourth season in the major leagues when the Arizona Diamondbacks host the Colorado Rockies in both teams’ season-openers.

If Arenado can come close to replicating his offensive production from 2015 while also winning a fourth-straight Rawlings Gold Glove Award, any sensible person would have to think things just might get turned around this summer in the Mile High City. While sitting in the clubhouse at Salt River Fields Thursday afternoon, the Rockies’ latest star sure seemed like he had found his place in the sun.

“I’m way more comfortable than I’ve ever been in the past, which is nice,” Arenado said. “There’s not so much of a stress level to play well in spring training anymore, it’s more about getting ready for April 4; It’s nice to have that as a goal. In the past it never used to be like that so it’s really nice to not have to worry about that. That’s probably why I’m playing better this spring because I don’t have to worry about anything except getting better.”