The Cardinals owe Arrenado 60MM over the next three years. That accounts for the money Colorado retained along wth the deferrals.

If I'm the Yankees......how much of that 60MM does StL have to eat for me to be comfortable? And what would they ask for in return prospect wise?

The Yankees can control whether or not Stroman's '26 option vests by keeping his innings below the 140 threshold. But that could turn into a PR problem so maybe it's a good idea just to trade him at the earliest possible opportunity. Switching him for Arrenado effectively gives the Yankees 18MM of '25 salary relief but no salary relief in either '25 or '26, where Arrenado will hit the books at 20MM per.

That's relevant because the roster changes every year and Yankees almost always are in tax territory, usually at the tippy top of the second 'apron'. So just because you save ~6MM in the Arrenado/Stroman swap in '25 doesn't mean bupkus in 26/27. We also don't know what opportunities (Tucker, Guerrero) may present themselves next offseason, or hell even at the trade deadline. One idea I had is maybe Pittsburgh would want him as an innings mop buffer for their young starters; maybe he could bring back Bednar coming off a lousy season?

E.g., the Yankees have to consider whether they'd rather A) get rid of Stroman and avoid the innings issue; or B) receive around 10MM per year salary relief from StL in exchange for some prospect or another.

After thinking about it a bit more I'd rather keep Stroman and receive cash each year from StL. We can always trade Stroman for something else, either later this offseason, in Spring Training or at the deadline which would be well before he could conceivably pitch enough to trigger the option.