The last week has been a busy one around baseball, with the Chicago Cubs signing Alex Bregman to a five-year deal, the St. Louis Cardinals trading Nolan Arenado to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Los Angeles Dodgers landing Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette signing with the New York Mets.

Given that several big names are now off the table, it seems like attention can circle back to a potential Cardinals trade of Brendan Donovan, the versatile All-Star who has attracted trade interest from several organizations this winter, including the Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants.

Having just turned 29, Donovan is a a four-year veteran of the Cardinals. He hit .287 in 2025 with 10 homers and 50 RBIs, also posting a .353 on-base percentage and a 119 OPS+. He also earned his first All-Star selection. Donovan is a career .282 hitter who had only a 13.0 percent strikeout rate last season, and with all of baseball is looking to improve upon its strikeout prevention rate, Donovan is an attractive trade option.

He has two years left of team control and can play all over the diamond. He spent 100 games at second base, 18 in left field, six at shortstop and two at designated hitter in 2025 and was named a finalist for the Silver Slugger Award at the utility position, losing out to teammate Alec Burleson.

ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney joined our sister 'Refuse to Lose' Mariners podcast this week to talk about Donovan. It should be noted that the interview took place before the Tucker and Bichette signings.

"I mean, it really comes down to what Chaim Bloom, head of baseball operations for the Cardinals, what he values. Does the package that is dangled by the Mariners, is that something that he wants? Are the Giants offering something that, in his eyes, is more preferential?

I say this, it’s interesting because I think the media generally, sort of, falls into the trap of looking at the top 10 lists that are generated, and they assume, 'okay, that that’s what everybody thinks.' That’s not the case. So you could have Chaim Bloom, and I’m just pulling numbers out of the air, saying, 'well, that guy might be the number nine prospect in the organization according to this website, but we actually like him better than all but two' or whatever it is.

And it really depends on the internal evaluations of the Cardinals. I think the Giants, who’ve had a relatively quiet winter, have an acute need at second base. They had an OPS just over .600 from those players, so Donovan would be a really nice player for them.

You do wonder about all the moves that the Red Sox have made during the course of the winter. Two trades with St. Louis. Does that mean that Chaim Bloom likes to dig into his—you know, he used to run the Red Sox—so does that mean he prefers to grab players he knows over those he doesn’t know as well?

It remains to be seen exactly where this is going to play out, but Brendan Donovan certainly is one of the next dominoes to fall."

There are three weeks until teams start reporting for spring training, so the urgency should continue to pick up on Donovan's market. It doesn't mean that the Bloom has to trade him for a subpar offer, but we should begin hearing more soon.

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