8:50am: Denton now reports that a multi-year deal no longer appears likely to be reached by today’s deadline to exchange figures. The two parties can, of course, continue negotiations on a multi-year pact even after arbitration figures have been exchanged. Similarly, the Cards and Donovan could come to terms on a one-year deal today and continue negotiations on a multi-year deal between now and Opening Day.
8:05am: The Cardinals are nearing a multi-year agreement with utilityman Brendan Donovan, reports John Denton of MLB.com. Donovan, a client of the Bledsoe Agency, was eligible for arbitration for the first time this offseason and projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $3.6MM in his first trip through the process. A multi-year deal would lock in the salary for at least two of his three arbitration seasons.
Denton adds that the Cards also discussed a multi-year arrangement with outfielder Lars Nootbaar, but the two parties haven’t been able to come to terms. He’s expected to agree to a one-year deal later today, avoiding an arbitration hearing in the process. Swartz projected Nootbaar for a $2.5MM salary in what is also his first offseason of eligibility. Like Donovan, Nootbaar is currently under club control through 2027.
Donovan, 28 later this month, has established himself as one of the game’s most valuable multi-position players. The versatile lefty hitter finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting back in 2022 and won a Gold Glove for his excellence across six different positions that season: all four infield slots and both outfield corners. Through three big league seasons, he’s turned in a .280/.364/.407 in just shy of 1500 plate appearances.
Donovan is light on power (30 career homers, .126 ISO) but draws walks at an above-average 9.4% clip and is one of the toughest players to strike out in all of baseball (career 13.7 K%, including 12.4 K% in 2024). He’s also fresh off a career-best 14 long balls, though that came in conjunction with a career-low 7.2% walk rate. Regardless of exactly how he’s gotten there, however, Donovan has been a decidedly above-average hitter in all three of his big league seasons, by measure of wRC+, and he’s capable of contributing sharp defense at third base, second base and in the outfield corners at the very least.
Whether the Cardinals are able to secure any free agent seasons in a multi-year deal remains to be seen. Both Denton and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggest that the Cards could approach a Donovan deal similarly to the manner in which they approached Tommy Edman’s case last winter: lock in his remaining arb seasons to obtain some cost certainty without extending the window of existing club control. There’s value in that for the Cards, to be sure, but tacking on at least one additional season would clearly be of greater benefit — if the two parties can find common ground. Donovan’s first free-agent season would be his age-31 campaign.
Nootbaar, 27, is coming off an injury-shortened season but still posted a solid .244/.342/.417 slash with a dozen homers in 405 trips to the plate last year. He’s slashed .246/.351/.426 with a 14% walk rate and 19.8% strikeout rate in 1255 plate appearances dating back to 2022. He’s proven himself capable of handling all three outfield spots but has drawn better marks for his glovework in the corners than in center. With the two sides unable to come to terms on a multi-year deal, it seems he’ll take a one-year pact and perhaps revisit multi-year talks next winter — ideally on the heels of a healthier season.
Donovan and Nootbaar are two of six arbitration-eligible Cardinals this winter. St. Louis also needs to hammer out deals with closer Ryan Helsley, righty Andre Pallante and lefties JoJo Romero and John King. The deadline to exchange salary figures is noon CT today. Like most teams, the Cardinals have adopted a file-and-trial approach in recent years, meaning they’ll use today’s deadline as an unofficial deadline to negotiate on one-year deals. Nothing is technically stopping teams and players from continuing to work toward one-year deals once figures are exchanged, but the vast majority of teams will only continue negotiating on multi-year deals (or one-year deals with an option) once figures have been swapped.
Bye bye any chance of coming to the Yankees. This is why I need to stop believing any Yankees rumors.
Plan B, maybe?
Does Cashman have skills in drafting and development?
The Cardinals were never trading Brendan Donovan. Every Yankees rumor I see is basically another team giving up a wishlist player for nothing.
I’ve seen nothing on Donovan to NY besides fan wishlists here. Lars, too.
Eagerly awaiting a Bobby Witt, Jr. rumor.
I did a Google search for these rumors. I found articles about the Yankees trading for B.Don but it was all outside bloggers like Fansided and Sports Illustrated. I didn’t find anything from Cashman or Bloom..or Mozeliak since we’re just barely into the new year. Don’t think I’m necessarily even disagreeing with nyyfan. After all, that’s probably where the vast majority of rumors come from.
It’s a good move to extend Donovan. The question is will it go past the arbitration years or simply avoid yearly arbitration as they did with Tommy Edman.
He’s turning 28 in a few days. This should be a career contract extension for all of his prime years. Five years with two club option years with a decent buyout for declining them.
Brendan is a pretty underrated player, he’s not super exciting…but he gets the job done.
If you would watch him every day, you would de be more excited!
He’s 28 and three years from free agency. Get whatever money he can now.
Outside of Gill or Dominguez Yanks don’t have what the Cards would want. Cards already have a power hitting lh bat that strikes out a lot in Gorman so Jones wouldn’t interest them
hah they’d take jones in a heartbeat. this notion that they’re not trading him because he’ll be around when they contend. that’s so silly, it’s a few years away, and you’ll have a….. nice 30+ YO utility player about to get paid (or already getting paid depending on this deal) when you get there? sweet. that sounds like a cornerstone…. so silly not to trade him now when a lot of people could use his solid obp driven offense and ability to play 5 or 6 positions.
So knolin. Just asking, by trading Donovan now, that seems you’re willing to kick the can further down the road – in terms of when the Cardinals would be competitive again?
Donovan is 27… I don’t believe 30+ means 27.
A .260 batter in AA with very high strikeout numbers is not quite the prospect Yankees fans seem to think he is.
Spencer Jones does not get you Brendan Donovan. Donovan is as close to Ben Zobrist as there is in the MLB today.
Good comparison to Zobrist
Ben Zobrist 2009-2015:
38.6 bWAR
Juan Soto, 2018-2024:
36.4 bWAR.
Though Zobrist was a SS-RFer who could play anywhere and put up 3/4 of a Hall of Fame Career, while Donovan is the far more common 2B-LF who can fake 3B reasonably well despite his arm and gets a few emergency starts elsewhere.
What he’ll be when the Cardinals have a shot if you read that.
Obviously BD isn’t at Zobrist’s level. I was trying to imply that they fill the same function and quite well at that.
The team is a lot closer to contending than people think. This wasn’t a rebuild…it was a move away from old, unreliable players. They got better by subtraction and the central is weak. As much as I love Goldy, he was one of the weak spots on the team last year. Will be interesting to see what these young pitchers do.
I’m not convinced the team will be better at 1B without Goldschimdt, especially since they still want to be competitive. His numbers were dragged down a lot by that first half Contreras will be a downgrade defensively, that much is certain.
I think the best version of this team would’ve had Goldy at 1B, Burleson DHing and playing some LF/1B, Donovan in LF and playing some infield, Gorman/Saggese competing for 2B (or one of them at 3B if Arenado is traded and his money reinvested). Contreras and Herrera would be handling C and Contreras would rotate in to DH. In this plan, Goldy would only be playing about 130 games this year to keep him fresh.
In 2023 the Cards seemed to think they could rerun 2022 and get another 24 WAR from Goldy, Arenado, Edman’s career year, with 190 innings from 40-year old going on 41 Adam Wainwright—and seemed genuinely surprised when that turned into 6 WAR.
Hard to say what they could have done to prevent the fall, other than recognize that by 2022 they were already a .500 team that wildly overperformed, and proceed on that basis.
If they turn around and buy half a team next off-season. Otherwise no they aren’t close. Nikolas gone gray old fedde gone before any kids are good. Their is no offensive core, Contreras halves his value at first, Wynn a good shortstop but no offensive force. Gorman, yeesh. Noot is nice when healthy, Donovan a nice Complimentary piece. It’s a 75 win team and I don’t see waves of talent coming. But a lot of freed up money. See where that ends up
I think the downfall of that team was committing to Wainwright in the rotation and not bringing in a legitimate 1 or 2 starter. Every 5th day was torture and that kind of thing messes with a clubhouse. Goldy and Arenado were still very solid players.
Donovan is a really solid player. He’s not great at any one thing but he’s consistent at everything which is hard to find. Hes not fast, doesn’t have a ton of power, and is really more of a super utility role player than a guy you would trade your best prospects like Dominguez or Jones for unless a team was desperate. I think St Louis will trade him before they contend and his value will not be what it is now but I still don’t believe his value is what St Louis Cards fans would expect back even right now. It’s good they are signing him but I wonder if he will be a cardinal through the term?
The team loves him. He’s Matt Carpenter 2.0. I would be stunned if they traded him.
If the Cardinals are bent on chopping his value almost in half by playing him in LF, they probably _should_ deal him to a team that takes him to be a genuine super-utility player.
I would ideally have the team either
A) Commit to playing Walker in the OF and moving Noot to LF on a daily basis
B) Acquire another starting-caliber LF player via FA or trade
….and keep Donny as a roaming utility player who plays basically every day. I wanted them to sign De La Cruz to encourage just this.
Donovan is one of those players whose contributions don’t necessarily show up in the box score. Definitely underrated.
@Dog. Zero skills that’s been the Yankees problem from the very beginning. I also don’t even know if the Yankees are a preferred team destination anymore. Unless, of course, they overpay for a Fried or Rondon and others to get them to come to New York
Good ol’ John Denton strikes again.
Here’s a report.
Well, maybe not.
Oooops. Sorry.
If Jones was a rh hitter the Cards would have some interest but their top three position prospects all hit left handed. Plus they have Gorman and Burlerson as left handed hitters. Cards need a good young rh hitting power prospect.
They think they have that in Jordan Walker.
We’ll see if he’s actually taking direction this winter in Jupiter, Fla.
It’s fair to blame some of his problems on the Cardinals.
After 2022 they got it into their heads that Walker was already a major leaguer and promoted him in early 2023 despite a very weak 140 PA in AAA. His defense made him unplayable, but because his hitting wasn’t dismal, they did it again in 2024 and got one of the logical outcomes of Walker’s past.
He belongs in AAA, where they should teach him to either DH or field somewhere, anywhere, and stop pretending he’s anything like the #2 prospect in MLB. Baseball Prospectus had him as, after the 2022 season.
He’s a project now. Can the Cards admit their mistake in rushing him?
Every Yankees fan on YouTube was Donovan-posting all winter even though there was exactly zero indication that the Cardinals wanted to trade him. Quite the contrary, there was every indication that the team wants to keep him. Same with Noot.
Having said all this, I’m skeptical on a Noot extension unless it is very affordable. You’re kind of just waiting for him to be healthy for a full season to see what kind of numbers he can attain since the WAR and OPS+ are usually solid.
I’m all for a Donovan extension though, and have been for quite a while. I’d like to see the team explore a Masyn Winn extension too, for the right price. Same with Helsley, although I know many are in favor of trading him and I understand why.
This team could turn the corner soon and get back to contention. Wetherholt and Davis are on the way for the offensive side of things. Matthews, Hence, Robberse, and McGreevey give you something to dream on pitching-wise.
I’m a huge Yankees fan and I didn’t post about Donovan. Since it would take an orgs top prospect to get an above average player, then no thanks.
I was speaking specifically about the many Yankee YouTube channels.
They do all have to create regular content without them all sounding the same so I would assume every name not nailed down to the ground is free game for them. I personally don’t watch any of them except Jomboy occasionally.
I never worry about what some fans on social media obsess about. I live in NY and heard very little chatter from legit sources about Donovan beyond he’d fill a need if the Cards wanted to move him. Nice player.
Not expected to sign is different then nearing a deal…
That’s a 180
Winn should be next. Something like an 8yr deal buying out his two pre-arb and three arb yrs while adding another three yrs to the tail end.
Something like the Tovar deal in Colorado is a good model.
And while they’re doing that they should compare the players and figure out why Wynn succeeded despite the lesser milb pedigree whereas Jordan Walker is flailing.
Donovan seems like a keeper but I think they can find another Nootbar type when it’s time to find another Nootbar type. I don’t see any rush or anything special that screams sign him
The thing with Noot is that the team is weak in terms of outfield prospects. Walker basically can’t play out there and might already be a failed prospect. Chase Davis is on the way, but he’s about it in terms of expected future starters.
Walker had a 113 OPS+ as a 21 year old in MLB and collapsed at 22—and that’s already a failed prospect?
He’s a born DH the Cards unaccountably believed was a major league RFer because he had an arm.
I said “might be”, Jack.
I can see trying to get Walker to be a serviceable corner OF not just because of the arm but because he has 78th percentile sprint speed.
And it’s very limiting to lock a young player into being a DH.
The bigger question I have about the Cardinals’ evaluation/development of Walker is that they kept him at 3B for all of 2021 and 70+% of his games in 2022. Moving him to corner OF to get reps learning that position could have happened sooner than it did.
A contract extension doesn’t rule out a trade. Do I want to see Donovan traded? No. Do I think he will be traded for the right offer? Absolutely.
Lock up Donovan now, please. His super-utility role is going to continue to have plenty of value as the Cards continue to shift so many “potential upside” players around…and around…and around.
$8m per year for 5 years seems reasonable and smart. Buys out all three of Donny’s arb years and locks him down through his age 32 season. Then he’ll have another good look at free agency.
Let’s go Cards!
I would be ecstatic if the Braves went and decided to somehow pry B.Don from the Cardinals. Players like him have more value than we understand, sometimes. He probably won’t swat even 25 home runs or bat .300 but what he will do is give you a good glove at multiple positions with an above average bat. That means you don’t have to ride your best players like horses through Death Valley in the middle of summer. Being able to rest your best players while not dramatically hurting your line up for a few games is incredibly valuable.