By Rob Rains
The subject of trade rumors virtually since the end of last season, Brendan Donovan had to wait and wait and wait – until Monday night – to find out that he was being traded by the Cardinals.
In his fourth major trade of the off-season, completed just 10 days before the start of spring training, new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom agreed to send Donovan to the Seattle Mariners in a three-team trade that will bring the Cardinals three minor-league prospects and two extra picks in next summer’s amateur draft.
The top prospect coming back to the Cardinals is Jurrangelo Cijntje, a 22-year-old pitcher who throws both right and lefthanded, although he is considered by scouts to be much more effective from the right side.
Cijntje was the first-round pick by the Mariners in the 2024 draft out of Mississippi State. In his first pro season last year, pitching in high A and in Double A, he totaled 120 strikeouts in 108 innings. He also appeared in the Futures Game.
Cijntje was ranked as the eighth best prospect in the Mariners system by Baseball America and MLB.com recently ranked him as the game’s 91st overall prospect. He had been scheduled to be in Seattle’s major-league spring camp as a non-roster player, and reports said the Mariners intended to limit him to pitching only righthanded.
The Cardinals also will receive the Mariners’ first-round pick in last summer’s draft, Tai Peete, a lefthanded hitting outfielder. The 20-year-old Peete spent last season in high A and hit 19 homers but also struck out 162 times and posted just a .217 average.
The third team in the deal, the Tampa Bay Rays, are sending the Cardinals another outfielder, Colton Ledbetter, who played in Double A last season, where he hit .265 and stole 37 bases. Ledbetter also played at Mississippi State and was the Rays’ second-round pick in the 2023 draft.
In addition to the three prospects, the Cardinals are receiving two competitive balance draft picks, one each from Seattle and Tampa Bay, which as of now would be the 68th and 72 picks in the draft.
“We are pleased that, because of this deal, we will add five more promising young players to the talent pipeline that has always fueled this organization’s sustained success,” Bloom said in a team press release. “We believe we’ve added exciting athleticism and upside on both sides of the ball, with more to come in this summer’s draft.”
With their own picks, the Cardinals will have six of the top 86 picks in the draft next July.
The trade followed Bloom’s earlier trades that sent Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras to Boston and Nolan Arenado to Arizona, loading up on young pitching prospects in return.
Bloom had said from the beginning of the off-season that if the Cardinals traded Donovan, they had a price they wanted other teams to meet and it took until Monday night for the Mariners to finally agree to the deal, which was completed only after Tampa Bay also got involved, receiving infielder Ben Williamson from the Mariners.
Donovan, who turned 29 in January, has two years left before he will be eligible to become a free agent and the Cardinals leveraged those two seasons into the prospect-laden deal, which keeps with Bloom’s off-stated promise that any deals he would make this winter would prioritize the long term over the short term.
“All of us here are so grateful for Brendan’s contributions to the Cardinals and to our community, which will last well beyond his time here,” Bloom said. “He is first class as both a player and a person, and that combination is rare. We wish him and his wonderful family well.”
The deal paves the way for JJ Wetherholt, the top prospect in the organization, to take over as the Cardinals’ starting second baseman.
Bloom had said as recently as the team’s Winter Warm-up that he hoped to have the Donovan situation resolved before the start of spring training.
The Mariners had been one of the teams interested in Donovan all winter, wanting him to be their regular second baseman. Another team believed to have been in serious talks with the Cardinals was the Giants, but they filled their need for a second baseman over the weekend by signing free agent Luis Arraez.
The trade leaves 28-year-old Lars Nootbaar as the oldest projected starter among the Cardinals position players.
It is still possible the Cardinals will make additional trades before the season begins, with lefthanded reliever JoJo Romero receiving interest from a number of teams. Romero is scheduled to become a free agent at the end of the season.
Donovan was drafted by the Cardinals in the seventh round in 2018 out of South Alabama. He reached the majors in 2022 and immediately became a fan favorite because of his hustling style of play, winning a Gold Glove and earning an All-Star selection.
He was limited to 118 games in 2025 because of a groin and toe injury and underwent surgery after the season, but is said to be 100 percent recovered and ready for spring training.
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Photo by The Associated Press
