photo: Brendan Donovan (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
The St. Louis Cardinals are frequently mentioned in current trade rumors. The Draft Lottery and Rule 5 Draft will occur in the coming week. Our history feature looks back at key events this past week in team annals.
News and Notes for the Offseason
This section contains information and snippets of news that don’t require extensive coverage but are of interest to St. Louis Cardinals fans.
- The Cardinals announced their 29th annual Winter Warm-Up fan festival and Cardinals Caravans. The former, reduced to two days in 2026, will be held at Ballpark Village and Busch Stadium on Saturday, January 17 and Sunday, January 18. Details here.
- Cardinals ticket packs for the 2026 season are now on sale. There are seven ticket packs available. Information on purchasing one or more of these packs can be found
- “Banana Ball” will return to Busch Stadium in 2026. The Savannah Bananas are scheduled to return to St. Louis next year for two games. The popular entertainment baseball team will come to Busch Stadium on Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22 as part of their world tour.
More information about the event and how to get tickets can be found here.
The Big Picture
The 2025 Winter Meetings began on Sunday, December 7 in Orlando, Florida. The meetings will last through Wednesday, December 10. President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom seeks to trade two more veterans, and possibly some arbitration eligible players in furtherance of the team’s rebuilding efforts.
On Friday, the Cardinals picked up right-handed reliever Zak Kent off waivers from the Cleveland Guardians. The 40-man roster is now up to 39.
At this point, there have been multiple reports of significant trade interest in Brendan Donovan. The team’s public stance is that they will trade him if they receive an offer they can’t refuse. This is a typical posturing statement that makes it clear to interested teams that the Cardinals are looking for a high-quality return for Donovan. It is quite possible, due to the high number of teams showing interest, that they may get that return.
On the other side of the spectrum, there has been no reported interest in Nolan Arenado. We will see if that changes during the Winter Meetings. It may be later in the offseason, after other available third basemen have been traded, that Arenado’s market picks up. Or he will remain with the Cardinals.
Willson Contreras has recently made it known that he is open to being traded, a change from his stance at the end of the season. Though Contreras still has significant money remaining on his contract, he should not be as difficult to move as Arenado. Unlike Arenado, Contreras had a good 2025 season, both offensively and defensively. Nevertheless, it is quite possible the Cardinals will have to eat some of his contract to get the return they seek.
On the final day of the Winter Meetings, Wednesday, the Rule 5 draft will be held. The Cardinals will likely be participants with high-upside pitching the expected target. As of now, they only have one open roster spot remaining but still have time for further moves.
The Draft Lottery will also take place during the meetings, on Tuesday. The Cardinals have one final chance to get a high draft pick in the 2026 draft.
Stay tuned for more happenings as the offseason continues.
Trade and Acquisition Rumors
- Cardinals reliever JoJo Romero is on a list of relievers the Seattle Mariners are looking to acquire, according to Adam Jude of the Seattle Times. The Mariners are looking for two relievers to upgrade their bullpen. On Saturday, the Mariners traded for one of the relievers on the reported list, Jose Ferrer of the Washington Nationals.
- The Mariners have been added to the growing list of teams interested in Brendan Donovan. In an earlier article by Adam Jude of the Seattle Times, the Mariners tried to acquire Donovan last offseason, and have approached new POBO Chaim Bloom to discuss a possible trade.
Multiple sources have affirmed that the interest in Donovan is very high, and ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote that the market for Donovan is “percolating’ and he predicts there is a 75% chance Donovan will be traded.
- In one of her final articles before moving on to cover the Los Angeles Dodgers, Katie Woo of The Athletic reports that first baseman Willson Contreras has become more willing to waive his no-trade clause for the right fit in a trade. This is a change from his position expressed at the end of the season that he preferred to stay with the Cardinals. Contreras has two years and $36.5 million remaining on his contract, plus a club option for 2028.
- Derrick Goold of the Post Dispatch writes that he is hearing from sources of rival teams that the Cardinals appear not to be actively seeking to trade Lars Nootbaar. The outfielder had been named in several rumors this offseason, but it seems the Cardinals may believe moving Nootbaar in the offseason would be selling low. Nootbaar is recovering from surgery on both heels for Haglund’s deformities and his availability for opening day is questionable. Given the injury and Nootbaar’s down season in 2025 (possibly due to the heel issue), the Cardinals could be planning to wait and see if the outfielder bounces back in the first half of 2026.
Transactions
- 12/5 The Cardinals claimed RHP Zak Kent off waivers from the Cleveland Guardians.
Injury Report
- There are no further updates on the recovery from offseason surgeries of Masyn Winn, Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar, and Iván Herrera. Stay tuned to this space for any future updates.
Looking Ahead
The Winter Meetings are underway, when trades and signings may be commenced/finalized. In the past, these Meetings were very busy and impactful. For the last several years they have become less so, as teams are waiting longer for various reasons to make their decisions on players they wish to acquire.
The Rule 5 draft will take place on the last day of the Winter Meetings. Also occurring during the Winter Meetings is the draft lottery which will be on Tuesday, December 9. The CBA prohibits teams from having lottery picks in three straight years. The Cardinals had a lottery pick last year, so this year will be their final chance under the current CBA, which expires on December 1, 2026.
The closing date for the signing of international amateurs is December 15, 2025. The next signing period begins on January 15, 2026.
The next key date on the offseason calendar is January 8, 2026. This is the deadline for teams and their arbitration eligible players to exchange salary figures. As of this writing, the Cardinals have seven players in this category – Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar, JoJo Romero, Andre Pallante, Nolan Gorman and Matthew Liberatore.
Blast from the Past
This week’s Blast from the Past will continue with the series highlighting notable events that occurred in the past history of the franchise for a relevant period. The offseason brings occasions such as awards, retirements, baseball transactions, and other interesting events.
In this installment, we look at events that occurred during the period December 1 through December 7. For each event, its date, individual(s) involved, a description of the event, and any other relevant details are provided.
December 1, 2015 – The Cardinals traded C Tony Cruz to the Kansas City Royals for OF Jose Martinez. Martinez made it to the major league roster late in 2016 and remained with the Cardinals through the 2019 season. He was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays on January 9, 2020 along with Randy Arozarena for LHP Matthew Liberatore.
December 1, 2016 – The Cardinals traded LHP Jaime Garcia to the Atlanta Braves for 2B Luke Dykstra, RHP Chris Ellis and RHP John Gant. Dykstra and Ellis never made it to the major league roster. Dykstra was released and Ellis was taken in the Rule 5 draft by the Texas Rangers. Gant pitched for the Cardinals, both as a starter and a reliever for five seasons. The Cardinals traded him to the Minnesota Twins on July 30, 2021 for starting pitcher J.A. Happ.
December 2, 1928 – 1B Jim Bottomley was named the National League Most Valuable Player.
December 2, 1948 – Stan Musial was named the National League Most Valuable Player.
December 5, 1967 – Stan Musial resigns after one year as the Cardinals’ General Manager and is replaced by Bing Devine. Musial remains with the Cardinals as a Senior Vice President and Consultant.
December 5, 2018 – The Cardinals acquired 1B Paul Goldschmidt from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for C Carson Kelly, RHP Luke Weaver and 2B Andy Young. Goldschmidt remained with the Cardinals until he became a free agent at the end of the 2024 season. He is currently again a free agent after one year with the New York Yankees. Kelly is playing for the Chicago Cubs, and Weaver is a free agent after two seasons with the Yankees. Young last played for the Washington Nationals organization in 2021.
December 6, 2023 – The Cardinals selected RHP Ryan Fernandez as the seventh pick in the Rule 5 draft from the Boston Red Sox. Fernandez made the Opening Day roster in 2024 and remains a key piece in the bullpen.
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