(Photo credit: The Sporting News)

Four years ago, no one would have expected Brendan Donovan to be one of the top names on the market in baseball. But here we are in 2026.

St. Louis has plenty of valid reasons to trade Donovan right now. The team is in a rebuild and has already moved on from several other stars on their team, including Willson Contreras and Nolan Arenado.

Donovan, coming off his first All-Star season, is one of the best and most desirable bats on the market given that he’s young (28), affordable, and still under team control for two years. Despite how desirable he is on the outside, it’s actually the Cardinals who are being the aggressors.

We can confirm that the Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants are very interested.

He’s extremely versatile when it comes to playing in the field, able to play in the outfield, infield, and DH if need be. Donovan slashed .287/.353/.422 with a .775 OPS in 118 games and hit 32 doubles and 10 home runs with 50 RBIs last year.

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, which continually makes him an attractive piece for the other 29 teams in baseball.

This young Cardinals team has a Gold Glove shortstop in Masyn Winn who is being touted as the future franchise player, and top prospects like Joshua Baez, Liam Doyle and JJ Wetherholt coming up the farm system to set the team up for long-term success.

On top of everything, new President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom has handled a rebuild before, and he clearly knows what he’s doing, especially in the draft, which should really have Cardinal Nation excited.

A Brendan Donovan trade may seem like it’ll hurt the team, but long-term, it could very well be the smart call for St. Louis.