Greetings. First, I have a note to send along to STL Sports Central insider subscribers.
I’m sorry that I didn’t write a column on Tuesday. I love to work but the timing of the Brendan Donovan trade was a poor fit for my schedule. Usually I will drop everything and get to the keyboard to write, but that wasn’t possible yesterday because of some unexpected developments on what should have been a normal work day. But I have many thoughts on the Donovan trade, and though I did a video to talk about it on Tuesday morning, I had more to say, which I held back for the column that I couldn’t write. So I’ll just go with the “better late than never” philosophy here. But I also found some new (and pretty cool) things to add. Thank you for your patience and support.
That said, let's get into the column...
Understanding that the Cardinals are in the early stages of a full rebuild, I really liked the trade that transported Brendan Donovan to Seattle for a five-item bundle of prospects and draft picks.
To be completed, this trade required a lot of time and the presence of a third team, Tampa Bay. The waiting was the hardest part, but in the end STL president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom got what he wanted. His equanimity led to a positive outcome for the Cardinals.
A brief summary:
Cardinals received: RHP Jurrangelo Cijntje, CF Tai Peete, OF Colton Ledbetter, and two competitive-balance Round B picks.
Mariners received: Donovan.
Rays received: 3B Ben Williamson from Seattle
– The two competitive-balance picks sent to St. Louis for use in the 2026 draft came from Seattle (No. 72) and Tampa Bay (No. 86.)
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And Now: Reasons Why I Liked This Trade For The Cardinals …
1. Bloom did well in giving up two years of contract control of Donovan, a one-time All-Star, in return for three prospects that were drafted in the first or second round … and then, on top of that, Bloom maneuvered to pull in the two draft picks that should assist the Redbird Rebuild.
I think we need to recognize the significant value added by the two draft picks, which I’ll get into later. I don’t know what others were expecting, but to move two more seasons of Donovan’s service that would be largely wasted in the throes of a rebuild – and get a five-item bundle for the future in return … good grief, that’s a terrific exchange for the Cardinals.
2. The Donovan deal was the fourth made by Bloom this offseason. Pitcher Sonny Gray went first, followed by first baseman Willson Contreras, third baseman Nolan Arenado, then Donovan. Here’s what Bloom accumulated in the four big-name transactions that gave the veterans new homes and the Cardinals a more hopeful future.
– Six pitchers: Jurrangelo Cijntje, Hunter Dobbins, Brandon Clarke, Yhoiker Fajardo, Richard Fitts, Jack Martinez. And Bloom signed free-agent starter Dustin May to a one-year deal with an option for 2027 … so that makes seven new pitchers added in one offseason. May will be in the 2026 rotation. And Dobbins and Fitts have the opportunity to join him. Cijntje, Clarke and Fajardo have elite talent and already have made it onto various St. Louis Top Prospects lists.
– Two position players: Tai Peete was Seattle’s No. 10 prospect and has considerable speed-power upside but must lower his high strikeout rate. One of the best Cardinals prospects (right now) is outfielder Joshua Baez who also had a glaring problem with strikeouts in his first two-plus years in the minors. Josh was well on the way to being declared a second-round bust until Bloom’s proactive player-development staff went to work on the plate-discipline flaws and turned Baez into a complete hitter.
-- The two draft picks which, among other things, can be converted into two more prospects or an established big-league player.
3. In Peete, Bloom secured a power-hitting prospect with significant upside, and that’s potentially a big step in the St. Louis rebuild. Peete’s 44% whiff-swing rate on breaking pitches is a major concern, and I’m not trying to minimize it. But given the Cards’ player-development success in retooling the struggling Josh Baez, it would be daft to dismiss the possibility of Peete, age 20, getting on track and turning into a dude.
"We wanted to make sure we got talent that has great upside," Bloom said on Tuesday. “There are no guarantees, but we wanted to get at least one if not multiple pieces that had the potential to impact a playoff team.”
Bloom said STL’s player-development people scouted Peete via video and identified adjustments that can help him. I hope so. We’ll see. But given the Cardinals’ paucity of power, Peete was certainly worth a gamble here.
Colton Ledbetter, 24, has a lower ceiling than Peete and had a down and terribly disappointing year in his first Double A season (last year.) But he does have game. And Ledbetter – a second-round selection by Tampa Bay – has time to define himself as a Cardinal prospect. He has posted consistently good exit velocity, can hit to all fields and has plenty of speed. The challenge for Ledbetter: tapping into his power potential that motivated the Rays to pull him in with the No. 55 overall in the 2023 MLB Draft.
4. I liked the Donovan Deal and the other trades because of what it told us about Bloom’s resolve to do this rebuild the right way – instead of deviating from his blueprint. Bloom didn’t blink. Every rebuild requires a plan. Bloom has a plan. And he’s determined to execute it.
As the esteemed baseball analyst Joe Sheehan wrote in his newsletter: “Too many executives shy away from dealing all of the veterans while rebuilding, trying to hold on to fan favorites, to popular players in the clubhouse, or just to keep from blasting another hole in the roster. Bloom, by making this last (Donovan) move, completed a process the Cards needed to go through.”
5. Jurrangelo Cijntje was the 15th overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft and has clear star potential. He’s ranked 44th on the overall Top 100 MLB prospects list presented by R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports. And could become a fixture in the STL rotation for many years. And if that happens, the Donovan trade becomes a big success for the Cards.
The idea of Liam Doyle and Cijntje heading the Cards rotation in 2027 and beyond is exciting. It’s important for the Cardinals to put his switch-pitching novelty act on hold; Cijntje’s right-handed pitching is vastly superior to his left-handed pitching.
The Cardinals should focus on enhancing Cijntje’s right-handed pitching by coming up with some ideas to make him more dominant against left-handed hitters. Another reason to like Cijntje’s probability for success as a Cardinal? STL’s director of pitching, Matt Pierpont, came to the Cardinals and is familiar with Cijntje. That’s a plus.
Here’s Keith Law on Cijntje’s switch-pitching experiment: “He needs to give it up, unfortunately, as he is killing his own effectiveness when he throws left-handed … his strength right now is right-on-right, as he’s been up to 100 mph with life and has a hammer slider. He has an average changeup but doesn’t have great feel for or command of the pitch, since at least some of the time he’d just switch to his left arm when facing a left-handed batter. He’s athletic with a very, very quick arm … he needs to focus on developing Dr. Jekyll and put Mr. Hyde away.”
6. Revisiting: here’s why the two competitive-balance draft choices (No. 72, and No. 86) have so much value to Bloom.
— Here is a list of notable MLB players who were drafted with a Round B selection: pitchers Shane Bieber, Joe Musgrove, Andrew Kittredge, Trevor May and Ryan Pressley. And position players Brandon Drury, Alec Bohm, Austin Hays, Brian Anderson and Chad Pinder. Those 10 players collectively have produced 90 Wins Above Replacement during their MLB careers. This group includes a Cy Young winner (Bieber), multiple All-Stars, high-leverage relievers, everyday position players and a super-utility dude.
— Unlike other draft picks, these Round B Round B selections can be traded for established major-league players, which obviously can help the team-building process.
— Bonus pool optimization is an important plus for a rebuilding team. These Round B picks come with assigned draft-slot values and give the team flexible bonus-pool money. That extra money can result in the signings of higher-caliber prospects who may have fallen in the draft due to signability concerns. Or that deeper bonus-pool money can (A) entice players to sign instead of remaining with their college-baseball programs, and (B) motivate high school talents to go pro instead of signing with a college team. Because Bloom secured these two draft picks, the Cardinals will have an additional $2.4 million in bonus-pool money. This is good, yes?
— As chief baseball officer in Boston, Bloom did well in drafting players selected out of the top 70. Examples: outfielder Roman Anthony with the 79th overall pick, infielder-outfielder Kristian Campbell at No. 132, and pitcher Connelly Early at No. 151.
— In the past the Cardinals have found gold in players drafted at No. 72 or later. The list includes Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Matt Carpenter, Tommy Edman, Trevor Rosenthal, Joe Kelly, Harrison Bader, Matt Adams, Kevin Siegrist, Daniel Descalso, Seth Maness, Luke Voit, Greg Garcia and John Brebbia. And I know I missed others. In fact, when I typed the names into the list Thursday, I didn't enter Pujols or Molina. (I need more sleep!)
So, yeah, these Round B draft picks can turn into something valuable, special or helpful. And yet, I’ve seem some goofballs out there writing that the Cardinals didn’t get enough for Donovan in this week’s trade … and at no point did the authors mention the two Round B selections pocketed by Bloom.
--- 7. With Bloom in charge, the St. Louis farm system has made remarkable progress in less than a full year. Baseball America revealed its annual farm-system rankings on Wednesday morning, and the Cardinals came in at No. 2. A year ago, they were No. 18. That's a climb of 16 spots in less than a year. And ESPN's Kiley McDaniel, who had the Cardinal farm-system ranked 19th last season, put them at No. 9 in his updated rankings going into 2026. But that's not all. After the Cardinals added three good prospects in the Donovan trade, ESPN moved the Cardinals up two spots to No. 7, and that's 12 spots better than the STL farm system was less than a year ago. That's exceptional.
As always, thanks for reading…
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith, Matt Holliday and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.