This past offseason, the St. Louis Cardinals made a handful of difficult decisions when it came to veteran players on the roster.
St. Louis committed to the idea of using the 2026 season for development and building up the farm system. It was the right call and the Cardinals did so by trading Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray to the Boston Red Sox, Nolan Arenado to the Arizona Diamondbacks and Brendan Donovan to the Seattle Mariners.
Of the four deals, the Donovan one took the longest to get done and was the clearest sign of St. Louis’ plan for development. Contreras, Gray and Arenado are all high-paid veterans without much time left on their deals. Donovan is still under cheap, team control with one more year left before free agency. Naturally, the Cardinals got a massive return for him as a result.
It was the right call to trade Donovan this past offseason and as the season has progressed, the deal has aged even more favorably for St. Louis.
When Donovan has been on the field, he has been good for Seattle. Unfortunately, it has been one of the toughest years of his career from that perspective, though. Donovan has played in just 39 games so far this season. Donovan is slashing .277/.371/.409 with a .780 OPS, three homers, 15 RBIs and seven doubles.
Again, he’s been good when he’s been on the field. But he just hasn’t been able to stay healthy. If the Cardinals hadn’t traded him last offseason, they would get significantly less for him now. St. Louis traded him with two seasons of control left. Now, Donovan has one more season of control left and is coming off a season that was full of injuries. The Cardinals traded him at the perfect time.
For Donovan, the Cardinals got No. 12 prospect Jurrangelo Cijntje, No. 17 prospect Tai Peete and outfielder Colton Ledbetter. Plus, they got two Competitive Balance Round B picks (No. 68 and No. 72), which were used to select outfielder Andrew Williamson out of Central Florida and pitcher Dawson Montesa out of West Virginia.
Cijntje is unique. How many other switch-pitchers are out there? Not many. Plus, he’s just one step away from the majors right now with Triple-A Memphis. Peete is in Double-A and has been electric all season. He’s batting .296 with 13 homers, 55 RBIs, 16 stolen bases, and 18 doubles on the season in 63 games played. Ledbetter is in Triple-A and has been tearing it up all season. And then, of course, Williamson and Montesa came to town as well.
If Donovan was still on the Cardinals right now, the return would be significantly less than what they got last offseason. The timing was difficult this past offseason, but St. Louis was smart to rip off the band-aid. Chaim Bloom and the Cardinals’ front office did the right thing, even if it wasn’t easy.
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