For most of the offseason, it's felt like an inevitability Brendan Donovan will be traded by the St. Louis Cardinals.

There's been chatter of the Cardinals potentially moving the second baseman dating back to last offseason, with the Seattle Mariners at the forefront of most rumors.

St. Louis has a lot of reasons to trade Donovan. The team is in a rebuild and has already moved on from several of its best players.

Donovan, who's coming off his first career All-Star selection, will likely earn the Cardinals the best return out of the players they've already traded.

Donovan is unlikely to have more value in the trade market than he does right now. In addition to being named an All-Star this past season, he's under arbitration through 2027 and is capable of playing second base and the outfield.

St. Louis could end up with multiple top 100 prospects in a potential trade for Donovan but at least one former player is one board with keeping him.

In a recent episode of the Cardinal Territory podcast, former Cardinals pitcher Kyle Gibson laid out the case for keeping Donovan on the organization and potentially reconstructing the team around him.

"Is there value in holding Brendan Donovan? Yeah," Gibson said on the Cardinal Territory podcast. "He's an All-Star utility player, utility Gold Glove. He's a stud. Of course there's value and I think there's value to building your team around him. It's gonna be really interesting as we see what Major League Baseball and what these teams do as they shift. Clearly there's teams making a little bit of a shift from swing-and-miss, a little bit of a shift from homer-heavy, swing-and-miss heavy, to some contact. And I just think (Donovan) is just a guy that does that really well, (Alec Burleson) is a guy that does that really well. ... I've never been on board with trading Brendan Donovan. And I say 'never' until maybe a really good trade package comes up. But, man, I just think he's a guy that you figure out how to keep here."

Gibson also mentioned 2025 Gold Glove-winning shortstop Masyn Winn as a player akin to Donovan that St. Louis can build around.

Donovan slashed .287/.353/.422 with a .775 OPS in 118 games and hit 32 doubles and 10 home runs with 50 RBIs.

In four years in the majors, Donovan hasn't had a batting average below .278, an on-base percentage below .342 or an OPS below .759 in a single season.

The Cardinals have been steadily building assets in their farm system via the MLB Draft, the international signing period and the various trades they've made in the last year.

Trading Donovan would likely give St. Louis enough depth in the minor leagues to build the roster how the front office sees fit. However, there's enough quality players in the minors for the Cardinals to put together a decent squad with Donovan as the centerpiece, if the team commits to extending him.

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