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Ledbetter isn’t very exciting. But he has some pedigree. Cijntje and Peete both have lots of upside. And the Comp B pick is the cherry on top. I can’t complain.
No. It goes to St Louis from Tampa. Currently it’s number 72.
That gives the Cardinals 5 picks in roughly the first 90 total picks and lots of $ to work with.
The Cardinals received quantity. The question is what kind of quality will it become?
I would have liked something better than Peete unless he can really make some improvements like Josh Baez did.
I figured Ledbottom was a right swinger close to the bigs, if not too promising. But he bats left and is a ways off.
Forsch, I couldn’t agree more. I’m not big on the return, I think Peete and Lemonjello are very overrated, and Ledbetter might not be very exciting but probably has a higher floor than Peete. Odd they are LH heavy, which leads to Donovan being more tradable and Nootbaar being mentioned a lot, but yet acquire 2 more LH hitters. Maybe I’m very wrong about the return, but if this is what the market was then I’m not sure it was worth it as much as I was in board with moving him fitter the right return to really boost this overhaul.
Peete and Ledbetter are both lefty swinging OFers and I think both have very little floor. I would have preferred one righty OF from somewhere. I would be surprised if either provides positive WAR to the Cards at the big league level.
The Mariners just said that Cijntje will be a right handed pitcher and focus less on switch pitching. He probably makes the majors but he’s sort of a Dakota Hudson type for me. Maybe 0-3 WAR for his career.
The Comp B pick may be the most exciting part of the deal.
Overall, I think Chaim gets a C on this deal. He’s working on a C off-season at the moment. Not too exciting, not too terrible.
This definitely cements us into last place next year. Hopefully they can avoid 100 losses.
Bloom got two first rounders and two second rounders for a seventh rounder. Plus he saved enough money to sign Danny Coloumbe who he can flip for two more prospects after reaping four months of value.
TWO Comp B picks!!!!
The Seattle Mariners have acquired All-Star Brendan Donovan. Deal is done. Full trade, per sources:
Mariners receive: Donovan
Cardinals receive: RHP Jurrangelo Cijntje, CF Tai Peete, OF Colton Ledbetter and two competitive-balance Round B picks
Rays receive: 3B Ben Williamson
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 3, 2026
Yes indeed. 2 Comp B picks makes this trade even better. That’s still a lot of “ifs” for a sure thing, but that’s the way this works.
Without either of the Comp B picks, this trade would have been somewhat ho-hum. With one, I was happy. With 2, I’m beaming. Nice work Bloom.
Yea I was just gonna post that J. We get Tampa’s 68 and Seattle’s 72 comp picks. Definitely ups my mood about it
This could be a good deal for all three teams.
The Lazaro Montes detractors on this forum should note that last season Montes struck out in 169 times in 589 plate appearances across High A and Double A while Tai Peete, who is 10 months younger than Montes, struck out 162 times in 529 plate appearances in High A (after striking out 162 times in 528 plate appearances the previous season in Low A). FanGraphs rates Peete as a 40+ prospect.
Baseball Trade Values assigns Seattle a slight overpay but may have given Peete an inflated surplus value of $14.8 million (more surplus value than the more highly regarded Cijntje). I saw Montes and Peete play multiple games last year and only Montes brought excitement to the plate.
Thank you for the engaging discussions on Brendan Donovan. Good luck in 2026 and beyond.
#STLCards get: Peete ($14.8M), Cijntje ($12.7M), OF Colton Ledbetter ($2.1M), Comp B pick ($2.5M) ($32.1M total)#STLCards give: Donovan ($30.7M)#Rays get: Williamson ($7.8M)#Rays give: Ledbetter ($2.1M), Comp B pick ($2.5M) ($4.6M total)
— Baseball Trade Values (@BaseballValues) February 2, 2026
If the Cards really got two Comp B picks, then I would bump the trade grade to a B. Getting around 3-5 WAR over the next 6 years from the prospects acquired is what I would expect. I would think they’d double that from the comp B picks it they get two. That makes it about equal value from Donovan if one of those picks turns into an average starting caliber player.
My initial thoughts are that Cijntje becomes a #2-3 SP. Ledbetter and Peete never become ML regulars. The 2 picks are either used to give more draft money to reach for a hard to sign draft pick or they draft someone who becomes an average ML starting player eventually.
I hope it’s not Andujar and that they find a trade for someone with a couple years left on a contract. But I understand how Andujar is the easy choice.
Most reports I’m seeing are Cards getting #68 & #72 Comp Round B picks, one from each team.
I like the trade.
Edit: And they still have Romero, Noot and others as chips.
Boy was I wrong in thinking Donny was staying put. Tai Jordan Peete intrigues me. Won’t be old enough to drink until the waning days of the ’26 season……this is one talented kid with a ceiling reaching the upper decks. We’ll miss Donny though.
In terms of return from publicly available data, the Cardinals probably come out good here. But my personal reception is I don’t like the return. I like Cijntje and think he has a good shot of being a big league SP and he does have upside with his RH throwing.
What I do not like about this deal is it is quantity over quality and the main piece coming back is a pitcher. Bloom must have thought the Cardinals pitching org quality was dead last in baseball as much focus as he has put on trade returns on the pitching side. I would have much rather gotten a 50 FV type position player back and would have rather actually held onto Donovan until the deadline that take this return.
Tai Peete has upside, but he isn’t a baseball player. He is a batting practice champ. I like raw power and think Peete has potential, but he has to completely change his approach which is a major ask. Just a quick glance at the stats show Peete is just a pull happy free swinger who could learn some things from Wetherholt on being a baseball player.
Ledbetter has some good underlying metrics but his upside looks more like a 4th OF with more realistic him being depth. I also really do not like that they acquired 2 LH hitters. This org is way too LH heavy and it needs RH hitters.
The 2 draft picks by themselves are good and each will probably be a borderline 40+ / 40 FV type guy. But again quantity over quality. The 2 draft picks does show Dewallet and Bloom do not have any desire of competing in the next 3 years and instead want to build a cheap team 3 years down the road. My problem with that is if you build for 3 years down the road, you build for never in the modern MLB because getting 3+ year targets to line up is almost impossible and you end up trading players off again. The Cubs and Astros did it 10+ years ago, but the rules have changed on the draft such as the lottery and they make it even less likely to work. The draft money may help, but it will probably again lead to a quantity over quality approach at the draft.
I give the trade a C-. Cijntje is the only nice part of this deal and only one that will likely provide any value to the Cards. The Cardinals will be lucky to get the same amount of value that Donny provided in terms of leadership and on field contributions.
We traded an All Star for a handful of players that probably won’t ever amount to sh~t at the big league level.
Well, I hate to see Donovan go but I suppose it was inevitable and Bloom did get a lot of pieces back. Now, whether any of what he got will ever amount to a hill of beans remains to be seen.
I have no idea what to expect from this team in 2026. I know this isn’t a playoff team but I feel like they could win 80 or lose 100 or anything in between.
After the last three years of watching a pretty bad team I can’t say as I’m looking forward to riding the struggle bus in 2026.
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