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It’s not that huge of a risk. Donovan is as steady as it gets and he’s already been banged up various times in his career. He’s about as likely to gain value in the first half as he is to lose value.
In his four years with the Cardinals, Brendan Donovan has not played in 156 games, nearly the equivalent of one entire season.
That hurts Donovan’s trade value.
Bloom basically needs to send a text today, saying “We will be making our decision on Donnie and Jojo at 1/21/26 at 3pm CST, if you’re still interested in one or both, we can announce that evening. You know what type of players/prospects we want”
Sometimes you need to tell people regardless of being a president of baseball operations or a CEO of the company that they need to shit or get off the pot.
Perhaps potential trade partners could send the St. Louis front office a similar text.
Perhaps those texts have already been sent.
Impressive that Donovan got into 188 games last year!
Good catch. Of course Brendan Donovan was limited to 118 games last year.
Over his four-year tenure in St. Louis, Donovan has not played in nearly 25 percent of the Cardinals’ games (the rough cumulative equivalent of one entire season).
Happy 29th Birthday, Brendan Donovan!
The closest comp for Donovan might be Philadelphia infielder Bryson Stott, who was born nine months later in 1997.
Donovan and Stott are lefthand-hitting infielders with precisely 4.00 years of MLB service. Donovan and the Cardinals have agreed to a 2026 salary of $5.8 million while Stott and the Phillies have agreed to a 2026 salary of $5.9 million.
Donovan has posted 11.1 bWAR and 10.1 fWAR in 492 MLB games while Stott has posted 10.3 bWAR and 10.3 fWAR in 572 MLB games.
FanGraphs projects Donovan with a 2026 WAR of 2.9 in 134 games this year after Donovan posted 2.9 fWAR in 188 games last year.
FanGraphs projects Stott with a 2026 WAR of 2.7 in 144 games this year after Stott posted 3.1 fWAR in 147 games last year.
Donovan and Stott have below-league-average strikout rates of 13.5 and 16.7 percent for their careers. Donovan holds a clear edge in career edge in wRC+ at 119 to 93, but Stott makes up the difference with superior defensive metrics.
Donovan and Stott each have two years of team control. Baseball Trade Values assigns Donovan a surplus value of $31.5 million and Stott a surplus value of $27.5 million.
A St. Louis podcaster thought the Phillies might be interested in Donovan after “losing out” on Bo Bichette. Philadelphia would seem to be an unlikely trade destination.
Harmony, Sloan and Arroyo are gonna look great with the “Birds on The Bat” uniforms!
Now that’s funny.
Perhaps Brett Baty and Mark Vientos now join Brendan Donovan as infield trade candidates.
Donovan’s trade market may have become more crowded with the Mets signing Bo Bichette.
A Red Sox blogger’s take on Brendan Donovan as a trade target:
From Sunday’s MLB Trade Rumors chat with Mark Polishuk:
Carl
6:51 Who says no, Brendan Donovan for Bryce Eldridge?
Mark P
6:51 Giants in a heartbeat. They’re not moving a top prospect for two years of Donovan.Bob
7:12 Who gets the better return? One year of Hoerner or two years of Donovan?
Mark P
7:12 DonovanIn his first four seasons in St. Louis, Brendan Donovan has posted 11.1 bWAR and 2 Defensive Runs Saved with one All Star appearance and a Top 3 finish in Rookie of the Year voting. Donovan has posted an OPS+ of 117 depite an OPS of .772 in 492 games.
In his first four seasons in St. Louis, Paul DeJong posted 11.1 bWAR and 28 Defensive Runs Saved with one All Star appearance and a Top 2 finish in Rookie of the Year voting. DeJong had posted an OPS+ of only 105 with an OPS of .774 in 427 games, including the shortened 2020 season.
Donovan and DeJong are contrasting players, Donovan a contact hitter with low strikeout rates and DeJong a power hitter with high strikeout rates. Defensive metrics loved DeJong but only the versatile Donovan won a Gold Glove.
FWIW Seattle podcasters speculate that the Mariners have “moved on” from pursuing Brendan Donovan:
… at 14:15.
Not all Brendan Donovan trade proposals are realistic:
To SEA: 2B Brendan Donovan
To STL: RHP Logan Evans, SS Felnin Celestenhttps://bleacherreport.com/articles/25350766-4-realistic-mlb-trades-make-both-teams-better
FWIW from Tuesday’s chat with MLB Trade Rumors columnist Steve Adams:
The Real Steve Adams
Cijnte and Montes for Donovan, who says no?Steve Adams
I think both is too steep for the Mariners to pay. Have a hard time seeing the Cardinals turn that down.https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/01/mlbtr-live-chat-98.html
Harmony, Cards will need a 3B at some point, is Arroyo an option there or 2B or corner OFer likely? 50 arm, but is that a 2B 50 or a 3B 50…..
Michael Arroyo’s future may not be in the infield … but the barely 21-year-old can hit.
FWIW Seattle top executive Jerry Dipoto has a history of getting little in return in trades of young pitching prospects who later blossom. Freddy Peralta, Pablo Lopez … even Zack Littell. The Mariners may be reluctant to part with Jurrangelo Cijntje, Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan.
Donnie Jojo and Noot for River Ryan and Emil Morales is still my hope. Someone with the TV calculator thing possibly put that in?
Basebal Trade Values gives Brendan Donovan, JoJo Romero and Lars Nootbaar a combined surplus value of about $48 million while assigning River Ryan and Emil Morales a surplus value of about $31 million.
https://www.baseballtradevalues.com/trades
Ryan is a 27-year-old with five years of team control, who hasn’t pitched since 2024, while Morales is the 100th-ranked prospect at MLB.com.
According to BTV, that Cardinal package would be a significant overpay for Ryan and Morales.
As a nearly 29-year-old with four years of MLB experience, Brendan Donovan projects to a narrower range of outcomes than does Seattle infielder Cole Young, a 22-year-old with only 77 games under his MLB belt.
Seattle is in a win-now mode and Donovan offers a higher floor than Young does for the 2026 season. At the same time, Young may offer the higher ceiling in 2026 and beyond.
Donovan and Young offer some similarities as lefthanded contact hitters. In the minors, Donovan walked in 12.2 percent and struck out in 17.8 percent of his 1,031 plate appearances. At much younger ages in the minors, Young walked in 13.2 percent and struck out in 14.4 percent of his 1,473 plate appearances.
In 2,006 plate appearances at the MLB level, Donovan has a 9.1 percent walk rate and 14.5 percent strikeout rate. Over 257 plate appearances in his disappointing 2025 MLB debut, Young had a 10.9 percent walk rate and 18.3 percent strikout rate. Young’s encouraging platoon splits resembled those of Donovan’s rookie season, not Donovan’s more concerning splits of recent seasons.
In the end the Mariners are unlikely to trade for Donovan … and the Cardinals may find a decent return elsewhere.
Anyway, if the Cardinals can get a package from Boston that includes Witherspoon, that would be my preference.
But if Seattle puts the best package together, and it is headlined by Cijntje, I do think it would make the farm system better and would be rooting for the Cardinals pitching gurus to show us what they can do.
Kyson Witherspoon and Jurrangelo Cijntje provide interesting comps as recent No. 15 overall draft picks who are now ranked No. 89 and No. 90 on MLB.com’s Top 100 prospect list.
Witherspoon and Cijntje each made 16 starts in his final collegiate season at SEC powerhouses Oklahoma and Mississippi State, respectively. Witherspoon gained all-SEC honors while Cijntje did not.
Baseball Trade Values currently assigns Witherspoon a surplus value of $17.7 million and Cijntje a surplus value of $14.5 million.
Harmony knows Sloan is a much much better prospect or wouldn’t be trying to offload Cjintje on a twice per post basis.
The Mariners reportedly would make Jurrangelo Cijntje avaiable in a trade for Brendan Donovan but Cijntje alone might be too much go trade for a potential upgrade over Seattle’s currently rostered options.
Donovan is unlikely to be traded to Seattle.
And, yes, Ryan Sloan is a more highly ranked prospect than Cijntje.
From an August report on Jurrangelo Cijntje at MLB.com:
The Mariners began the season by having him alternate between switch-pitching starts and left-handed relief appearances but moved to a more normal starter’s schedule in May. Since the change, the 2024 first-round Draft pick has pitched to a 3.92 ERA with 61 strikeouts compared to 19 walks in 57 1/3 innings, primarily throwing right-handed but picking spots to switch sides.
https://www.mlb.com/news/colt-emerson-jurrangelo-cijntje-promted-to-double-a-arkansas
Is Seattle in dire need of the “veteran presence” of Brendan Donovan, who has posted 10.1 fWAR over his four-year MLB career?
Over the same period, the fWAR totals for current Mariner position players: Cal Raleigh 23.0, Julio Rodriguez 21.2, J.P. Crawford 11.6, Randy Arozarena 10.7 and Josh Naylor 9.9. Three Seattle pitchers have surpassed Donovan’s fWAR totals over the four-year period.
Seattle is defensively strong up the middle with Rodriguez and former Gold Glove winners Raleigh and Crawford but could use defensive upgrades after finishing near the bottom last year in many fielding categories:
Returning Mariner second baseman Cole Young remains an enigma after posting dismal defensive metrics in his MLB debut last season. However, FanGraphs graded Young as a 50/60 fielder as a prospect.
Returning third baseman Ben Williamson rated a 70/70 defender as a prospect and was credited with 8 Defensive Runs Saved in only 703 innings at third base last season.
Thank you for an interesting discussion about a trade that is unlikely to take place.
Is there such a thing as team WAR?
https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=ALL&teamid=28
WAR can start a conversation but rarely provides the final answer. We all have the privilege of assigning appropriate weight to established metric systems and to the subjective bald opinions of forum contributors.
The Just Baseball podcasters propose a trade of Brendan Donovan and Pedro Pages to Seattle for Jurrangelo Cijntje, catching prospect Luke Stevenson and infield prospect Nick Becker.
Cijntje was the No. 15 pick in the 2024 draft, Stevenson the No. 35 pick in the 2025 draft and Becker the No. 57 pick in the 2025 draft by a Seattle club that has drafted well over the past decade. MLB.com ranks Cijntje, Stevenson and Becker No. 7, No. 9 and No. 12 in the Mariner farm system.
Seattle would be reluctant to give up the high upsides of recent top draft picks.
FanGraphs and ZiPS currently project Seattle with 2.5 and 2.2 WAR from second base (and 2.1 and 2.5 WAR from third base). FanGraphs projects Brendan Donovan with 3.0 WAR in 574 plate appearances.
Are the Mariners willing to part with a Top 100 prospect or two for that projected upgrade?
A fair trade is often painful for fans of both sides. No trade may be the less painful outcome.
And Seattle fans would wish Brendan Donovan well in the highly regarded Dodger franchise.
The Mariner front office likely knows when to walk away from trade negotiations.
The forum won’t let me submit a longer post.
Brendan Donovan is a solid everyday MLB who has averaged 2.4 or 2.5 WAR over the past three seasons. Donovan has averaged only 123 games per year over this first four MLB seasons, including only 118 games in 2025.
In his age 21 season, Dovovan played 57 college games at South Alabama and only four professional games in the short-season New York-Pennsylvania League. In his age 21 season, Cole Young played 77 games at the MLB level and 54 games at Triple A.
It’s a tough comparison.
Seattle has generally rushed Young and third baseman Ben Williamson, who made his MLB debut barely 21 months after being selected in the second-round of the 2023 draft. Williamson had played in only 188 minor league games.
The Mariners are indeed top heavy in position players. Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez have combined for 44.2 fWAR over the past four seasons, an average of 5.5 fWAR per player per year.
Two Top 100 prospects in Jurrangelo Cijntje and Michael Arroyo should be too much for Seattle to surrender for two years of a 2.5 WAR player (although FanGraphs projects Donovan with a 2026 WAR of 3.0 in a generous 133 games). Ryan Sloan and Kade Anderson should remain off limits.
Wishing the Cardinals well in the rebuild (and the Mariners well coming off seasons of 90, 90, 88, 85 and 90 wins).
