Separating Truth From Fiction in Brendan Donovan Trade Scenarios

I am a big believer that quality is much more important than quantity when it comes down to what we share with you here about the latest St. Louis Cardinals news and rumors. I try to make sure that I’m sharing real substance and not just the mystical whims of another sports writer. That being said, the Brendan Donovan trade scenarios and rumors have been among the most challenging in discerning what’s real and what’s imagined I’ve seen in years.

I wish I had a nickel for the number of times just in the past few days that I’ve been tempted to share what I’m hearing about teams that are “in” on Brendan Donovan. The latest and the one I think is likely based in the most fact comes from Katie Woo who named the Seattle Mariners and San Francisco Giants as the front-runners for Brendan Donovan.

In Katie’s report, there are specific prospects that have been discussed including Jurrangelo Cijntje and Lazaro Montes from the Mariners and Gavin Kilen and Carson Whisenhunt from the Giants. Seattle Sports says the Mariners are targeting either Donovan or Marte and I’ve heard the same speculation about the Giants. Some are even thinking a Brendan Donovan trade could go down this week. We’ll see.

I am not exaggerating when I say that you can Google “Brendan Donovan traded to” and you’ll see nearly every MLB team come up in the results including the Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers and I could go on and on. Nearly every team makes sense at some level because there are very few teams that would NOT love to have a Brendan Donovan and most of those teams have prospects which line up with what St. Louis Cardinals President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom has mentioned he favors. These reports are a dime a dozen and probably worth a lot less than that.

Here’s the wild card in all of the Brendan Donovan speculation. We don’t know what the Arizona Diamondbacks are asking for Ketel Marte. There’s also a report that the San Francisco Giants are on Marte’s no-trade list. I think that may end up playing a role in where Brendan Donovan ends up also.

I’m gonna go ahead and toss out a prediction and I’ll even go so far as to predict that it will happen this week. I think that the San Francisco Giants will be the team that ends up giving the St. Louis Cardinals the prospects they want because I believe they really do NEED either Ketel Marte or Brendan Donovan and I don’t think the Arizona Diamondbacks want to trade within their division even if Marte is willing to go there. That leaves Chaim Bloom and his high ask for multiple prospects as the likely winner.

I like what I’ve seen so far from Chaim Bloom and the moves he’s made. The Dustin May free agent signing was a very low-risk, possibly high reward move and the Sonny Gray for prospects trade was needed. How he handles this Brendan Donovan trade will tell us a lot about the future of the St. Louis Cardinals. I am cautiously optimistic.