TWO DAYS AFTER his 2021 season ended, Nolan Arenado found himself standing on a driving range, shirtless, with stickers attached to his torso and a bat in his hands. The St. Louis Cardinals' otherworldly third baseman was in Oceanside, California, at the Titleist Performance Institute, taking batting practice on a field more often littered with golf balls than baseballs. He was ready to embark on the most important winter of his life, one in which he chased around the country the one thing that for so long never was in doubt: his greatness.