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Mets Acquire Ryan Helsley

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The Mets continue to load up in the late innings. New York announced the acquisition of Ryan Helsley from the Cardinals for infield prospect Jesus Baez and minor league pitchers Nate Dohm and Frank Elissalt. It’s the third relief pickup of the week for the Mets, who had already acquired hard-throwing lefty Gregory Soto from Baltimore and paid a hefty price to get submariner Tyler Rogers from the Giants. They had an opening on the 40-man roster, so there was no corresponding move.

Helsley adds another power arm to the late innings. His fastball sits above 99 MPH on average. Opponents have nevertheless had a field day against the heater this season, batting .406 and slugging .522. They’ve had no success against Helsley’s upper 80s slider, which he turns to as often as he goes to the fastball. The end result is an even 3.00 earned run average across 36 innings. The righty has fanned an above-average 26.1% of batters faced behind a massive 16.1% swinging strike rate.

This is Helsley’s fourth consecutive season of strong production. He first assumed the Cardinals’ closing role in 2022 and has successfully nailed down 103 saves out of 121 tries over the past three-plus years. Helsley posted a 2.45 ERA or better in each season from 2021-23. He began this season a little slowly, allowing 3.60 earned runs per nine with eight walks and 10 strikeouts through the end of April. He has reeled off a 2.77 ERA with plus strikeout (27.4%) and walk (5.3%) percentages going back to May 1.

After a few seasons in the ninth inning, Helsley will move to a setup role in Queens. He’ll likely be Carlos Mendoza’s top leverage arm in the bridge to Edwin Díaz. Rogers may not be far behind him in the pecking order. Helsley and Rogers are each excellent relievers but couldn’t be more different stylistically. Mendoza will have a few different looks in what now seems to be one of the deepest bullpens in the game. Reed Garrett, Ryne Stanek and Soto all bring plus velocity in the middle relief group.

The 31-year-old Helsley is playing on an $8.2MM salary for his final season of arbitration. The Mets will pick up the remaining $2.65MM. They’re taxed at a 110% rate on all expenditures, so they’ll pay nearly $3MM in taxes on top of the money owed to Helsley. It’s an approximate $5.6MM investment. Helsley will be a free agent at season’s end. That’s also true of Stanek, Rogers, Soto and probably Díaz (who can opt out of the remaining two years and $37MM on his contract). New York holds a club option on southpaw Brooks Raley. There’ll be a lot of turnover next season, but it’s a high-octane group for the stretch run.

The Mets are loading up at the same time as the Phillies are dealing two highly-regarded prospects for Minnesota’s star closer, Jhoan Duran. Philadelphia is percentage points above New York in what should be a fantastic NL East race. The Mets have also been linked to center field upgrades — Luis Robert Jr., most prominently — and could turn their attention to the lineup over the final 22 hours before the deadline.

On the other end, the Cardinals are parting with a player who has spent a decade in the organization. Helsley was a fifth-round pick in 2015 and has spent parts of seven seasons with the big league club. The Cardinals curiously opted not to trade him last offseason despite cutting payroll and viewing 2025 primarily as an evaluation year for their young players. St. Louis hung around the playoff mix for a while, but an 8-15 record in July has sealed their fate as deadline sellers.

Helsley acknowledged last week that a trade was coming. While he’d spoken a few times about wanting to sign an extension with St. Louis, the team never seemed to reciprocate the interest. They weren’t especially likely to make him a qualifying offer that should land north of $22MM. (Teams cannot make a QO to players acquired midseason, so the trade ensures that Helsley will hit free agency unencumbered.) The Cards have dropped close to .500 and sit five games back in the Wild Card picture, making a trade inevitable.

In all likelihood, they’re getting a slightly lesser return than they would have received had they shopped Helsley over the winter. Baez, a 20-year-old infielder, is the headliner. He placed in the back half of the Mets’ top 10 prospects at both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs slotted him 15th in his organizational writeup last June.

The righty-hitting Baez impresses evaluators with his bat speed and contact skills. That comes with a tendency to expand the strike zone that alarms some scouts, though, and Baez is not expected to have the requisite athleticism to stick at shortstop. He’s a potential regular at third base who remains at least a couple years from big league readiness. Baez is playing in a pitcher-friendly setting in High-A, batting .242/.332/.390 with 10 home runs and a lower than average 16.3% strikeout rate.

Dohm, a 6’4″ right-hander, was New York’s third-round pick last summer. The Mississippi State product has combined for a 2.87 ERA with a near-29% strikeout rate in 18 starts in the low minors. He ranked 14th in the system at MLB Pipeline but was further down at BA (25th) and FanGraphs (42nd). Dohm battled forearm injuries in college and faces some durability questions. He leans most heavily on a potential plus fastball while mixing in a slider and curveball. There’s a decent chance he’ll wind up in relief, but the Cards will presumably continue developing him as a starter.

Ellisalt was New York’s 19th-round pick last summer. FanGraphs ranked him 43rd in the system, writing that his fastball/slider combination gives him a shot to be a middle reliever if his command becomes passable. He’s a 23-year-old reliever with a 3.04 ERA and strong 29% strikeout rate against younger competition between two A-ball levels.

This’ll be the first of multiple subtractions from the St. Louis bullpen. Impending free agents Phil Maton and Steven Matz should both be moved. Lefty JoJo Romero has an additional season of arbitration control but could be dealt as well. None of those players will command as strong a return as Helsley did, but the Cards could add a few more mid-tier prospects to the farm system by tomorrow evening.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported the Mets were closing in on a deal for Helsley. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com confirmed the deal was in place and was first with Baez as the headliner of a three-player package. Heyman was first on Ellisalt and Dohm. Image courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images.

MLBTR Podcast: Megapod Trade Deadline Preview

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams and Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss various trade deadline topics, including…

Check out our past episodes!

  • David Robertson, Trade Chips For The O’s and A’s, And What The Rangers Could Do – listen here
  • Rays’ Ownership, The Phillies Target Bullpen Help, And Bubble Teams – listen here
  • Firings in Washington, Bad Braves, And An AL East Shake-Up – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Geoff Burke, Imagn Images

Padres Interested In JoJo Romero

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The Cardinals’ bullpen should look quite a bit different in 36 hours than it does now. Closer Ryan Helsley is one of the most coveted available relievers and is very likely to move. Phil Maton and Steven Matz are impending free agents who should be traded as well. There hasn’t been as much public attention on southpaw JoJo Romero, but he’s another trade candidate.

Katie Woo of The Athletic reports that the Padres are among the teams to show interest in Romero. St. Louis has presumably received interest from a few clubs on the 28-year-old lefty, who carries a 2.12 ERA across 34 innings. Romero has fanned 24% of batters faced with a 52.9% ground-ball rate. He has collected 16 holds without blowing a lead all year, and he’s coming up on three months of quiet excellence.

Romero had a rocky April, allowing eight runs (seven earned) with seven walks and strikeouts apiece in 10 1/3 innings. He has allowed just four runs, one earned, since that point. Romero owns a 0.38 ERA with a 28.1% strikeout rate while keeping opposing hitters to a .200/.277/.271 slash line over his past 27 appearances. While he’s obviously not going to maintain that level of dominance, he has fired 93 innings of 2.90 ERA ball while picking up 46 holds over the past season and a half. He has gotten plus ground-ball marks with solid swing-and-miss rates while sitting around 94 MPH on his fastball.

Unlike the trio of more frequently mentioned rentals in the St. Louis bullpen, Romero is under club control for another season. He’s playing on a $2.26MM salary this year and should land in the $4-5MM range for his final arbitration campaign. The Cardinals should nevertheless look to move him to a clearer contender this summer, especially if they lower their already diminished playoff odds by trading Helsley and Maton.

San Diego has a trio of left-handers in the bullpen. Adrian Morejon is among the best in baseball. Romero would be a more reliable second option than Wandy Peralta or Yuki Matsui. Adding to the bullpen could be viewed as a luxury buy for a team with clearer holes in left field and throughout the bench. President of baseball operations A.J. Preller has left the door open to further adding to an already excellent relief group. It’s also possible they could acquire a leverage reliever while dealing away one of their current late-inning arms (most likely closer Robert Suarez) for outfield or rotation help.

Rangers, Yankees Among Teams Interested In Ryan Helsley

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As the Cardinals head into the deadline as likely sellers, a handful of the club’s players are getting significant attention on the trade market. Of the team’s major pieces, no player is more likely to be moved than closer Ryan Helsley, a free agent after the 2025 season. The Dodgers and Mets have already been connected to Helsley in some capacity this summer, while the Phillies were known to have interest in the closer earlier this year and the Blue Jays were among the clubs to check in on his availability this past offseason. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports that all four of those teams remain current suitors for Helsley, and adds two more interested teams to the pile: the Rangers and the Yankees.

Helsley, 31, is arguably the best rental reliever on the trade market this summer. A two-time All-Star, Helsley sports a strong resume as one of the top closers in the sport. He’s posted a 2.03 ERA with a 2.55 FIP across 203 2/3 innings of work since the start of the 2022 season. Along the way, he’s picked up 102 saves and struck out batters at a 32.9% clip. It’s an undeniably elite profile, and while his 2025 numbers may not be quite on that level he’s still been fantastic for the Cardinals this year. In 36 innings of work, Helsley has posted a 3.00 ERA with a 26.1% strikeout rate and converted 21 saves in 26 opportunities. Those five blown saves have already matched a career high, but Helsley still figures to be very attractive in a market where other rental closers like Raisel Iglesias and Kenley Jansen come with blemishes of their own.

There are other relievers who are surely more attractive than Helsley available, but each of those elite closers come with team control beyond the 2025 season and as such will cost significantly more in terms of prospect capital. Helsley could be a more affordable option for clubs who balk at the prices of Jhoan Duran, David Bednar, Pete Fairbanks and others—particularly after Guardians closer and likely trade candidate Emmanuel Clase was effectively taken off the market by a sports betting investigation. Clase’s exit from that market will likely further incentivize other clubs with controllable relief talent to keep their prices elevated, and reporting earlier today suggests that the Pirates are asking interested clubs for a package headlined by a prospect within that their organization’s top five in exchange for Bednar.

That could make Helsley a particularly intriguing addition for clubs that aren’t especially keen to give up top talent, and the Yankees and Rangers may both fall into that bucket to some degree. There have been some signals that Aaron Judge’s elbow injury has pushed the club to consider being less aggressive than usual this summer, and when teams would surely be asking for top talents like George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones in exchange for top controllable relief arms it could make sense for the Yankees to prioritize a more affordable rental player like Helsley. On the other hand, with Devin Williams already in the fold the club may be comfortable looking at relievers without Helsley’s closing experience like Danny Coulombe or perhaps even teammate Phil Maton.

The Rangers, meanwhile, appear to be leaning heavily towards buying and have already been connected to Bednar today. Texas has no established closer in the fold so, someone like Helsley to lock down the ninth inning could be very valuable for them. With that said, the team has a solid but not excellent 47.9% chance of making the playoffs according to Fangraphs. Another complicating factor is the luxury tax, which ownership appears determined to avoid paying into this year. Helsley’s $8.2MM salary is hardly exorbitant and the Rangers would only have to pay a pro-rated portion of it to cover the final two months of the season, but perhaps the club would prefer to focus on someone like Bednar who would be under control for next year and come with less of a short-term financial burden.

Given that Helsley is a rental, any team that acquires him will have to battle it out for his services in free agency barring a surprise extension. That’s a battle that very well could include the Cardinals themselves, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes today that Helsley has made clear to the club that he would be willing to return to St. Louis via free agency this offseason even if he winds up being traded over the coming days. It’s far from common for traded rentals to return to the club that dealt them the following winter, but Helsley has long indicated he would like to remain in the organization beyond this season. Goold notes that it has occurred in a few high-profile cases in recent years, such as with Aroldis Chapman and the Yankees at the 2016 trade deadline as well as Jeurys Familia and the Mets back in 2018.

Sonny Gray Unlikely To Waive No-Trade Clause Prior To Deadline

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Cardinals ace Sonny Gray was briefly in trade rumors this past offseason but quickly quashed them when he told president of baseball operations John Mozeliak that he wasn’t keen on waiving the full no-trade clause in his contract. Gray’s name has at least tangentially popped back up on the rumor mill with the July deadline now just three days away. The right-hander tells Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Mozeliak recently revisited the subject of Gray waiving his no-trade clause.

The 35-year-old Gray declined to elaborate beyond the mere fact that he and Mozeliak had recently talked about the matter. However, MLB.com’s John Denton reports that during that conversation, the right-hander again conveyed that he prefers to stay in St. Louis — at least for the remainder of the current season. Barring a late change of heart, it seems Gray will remain with the Cardinals for the balance of the regular season.

The Athletic’s Katie Woo reported this weekend that the Cardinals would “entertain” offers on Gray and that Mozeliak had gauged interest from some clubs. Presumably, that was done in an effort to provide Gray with as much information as possible when having this conversation with him. There’s no indication that the Cardinals spent significant time workshopping trade offers before talking with Gray, but Mozeliak & Co. have surely fielded a wide swath of calls and texts regarding the availability of a notable portion of the roster.

A trade of Gray would likely have been difficult to piece together, though not necessarily due to his performance. It’s true that the veteran righty has turned in ugly outings in consecutive starts, ballooning his ERA from 3.50 to 4.33 over his past two outings thanks to a combined 14 earned runs in 8 1/3 innings. However, he’s also less than a month removed from an 11-strikeout one-hit shutout of the Guardians and obviously has a lengthy track record as a high-quality big league starter. Recent ERA spike notwithstanding, Gray boasts a 26.7% strikeout rate and 4% walk rate on the year — both excellent marks, with the latter in particular registering as elite. Metrics like FIP (3.02) and SIERA (3.09) portray him far more favorably than his recently inflated earned run average.

Gray’s contract is another matter entirely — and a far more complicating factor, at that. The former AL Cy Young runner-up’s three-year, $75MM deal is heavily backloaded, which would surely prove a hurdle in any trade talks. He’s in the second season of that pact but earned just $10MM in year one of the deal. He’s making $25MM this year, with about $8.333MM yet to be paid out as of this writing, and he’s in line for a $35MM salary next year. Gray’s contract also contains a $30MM club option for 2027 that comes with a $5MM buyout (which is included in his guarantee).

As such, even though Gray is past the halfway point of the contract, he’s still owed a whopping $48.333MM for the remaining one and one-third seasons on his contract. That’s nearly 65% of the contract’s total value. The $5MM buyout on his 2027 option is deferred over a five-year period, but that does little to reduce the sizable net-present value of what’s left on the contract.

If the Cardinals were willing to take on a notable portion of that sum, they’d obviously be able to extract a better net return. As things stand, one-plus year of Gray at nearly $50MM doesn’t exactly afford surplus value. Even if a team valued Gray as a $30MM-per-year starting pitcher, his contract would be slightly underwater. All of that is rendered moot by Gray’s preference to stay in St. Louis. The Cardinals could revisit the situation in the offseason, but Gray would still be owed a $35MM salary and that deferred $5MM buyout. It’s a hefty sum, particularly entering his age-36 season.

That said, the Cardinals could have some extra motivation to get a deal done this offseason. One of the driving factors behind their dormant offseason was a desire to not only trim payroll but to clear playing time for younger players who could be core pieces. The Cards already opened up one rotation spot for young Michael McGreevy when they designated Erick Fedde for assignment (and subsequently traded him to Atlanta).

Moving Gray would further open up innings for young arms while simultaneously trimming notable money from the payroll. If the Cardinals were to eat enough of Gray’s contract in the offseason, they could extract some genuine prospect talent. That’s not necessarily the goal, however. Goold wrote in a chat with readers today that the organization would look to clear as much of Gray’s salary as possible — doing so “ahead of any other considerations.”

Cardinals’ Tekoah Roby Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Cardinals pitching prospect Tekoah Roby underwent Tommy John surgery last week, reports Katie Woo of The Athletic. He’s expected to miss not only the remainder of the current season but also the entire 2026 season as well.

It’s a brutal blow to the team’s prospect base. Roby has ranked among the Cardinals’ most promising young arms since he was acquired two years ago in the trade sending Jordan Montgomery to the Rangers, but he’d taken a considerable step forward this season. The 23-year-old opened the season with a brilliant 10-start run in his second stint at the Double-A level, pitching 47 innings with a 2.49 ERA, a 31% strikeout rate and a 6% walk rate. That earned him his first bump to Triple-A Memphis, where he started six more times and notched a 4.02 ERA, 22.6% strikeout rate and matching 6% walk rate.

Overall, Roby has pitched 78 1/3 innings with a 3.10 ERA between the Cardinals’ top two affiliates. Woo adds that the Cardinals, as part of their player development overhaul this season, had added a two-seamer to Roby’s repertoire and made changes to the shape and velocity of both his slider and changeup. The results were impressive, but those gains are now on hold after a second straight season with elbow troubles will prompt a major surgery.

It’s been a tough season for Cardinals pitching prospects. While McGreevy has remained healthy and now pitched his way into the rotation, many of the system’s other young arms have incurred notable setbacks. In addition to Roby, pitching prospects Cooper Hjerpe and Sem Robberse have both had Tommy John surgery this year. Hjerpe had his surgery in mid-April, and Robberse followed about a month later. Right-hander Tink Hence has missed most of the season due to a rib cage sprain. Lefty Quinn Mathews missed more than a month due to shoulder discomfort and has walked a staggering 21.3% of his opponents in 13 Triple-A starts when healthy.

The complications for the Cardinals extend beyond the obvious and straightforward setbacks in the development of several key young arms. Both Roby and Robberse are on the 40-man roster already. Hjerpe will need to be added this winter or else be left unprotected in the Rule 5 Draft (where there’s plenty of precedent for a team selecting a pitcher who is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery).

There’s no 60-day IL in the offseason, so if the Cardinals indeed add Hjerpe to the 40-man in November, they’ll effectively be navigating the offseason with only 37 of their 40-man roster spots available. Each of Roby, Robberse and Hjerpe would be taking up a spot. And, since none of them has made his big league debut yet, those dead roster spots would even carry over into the 2026 season, unless the Cardinals select any of the three to the major league roster and place them on the 60-day injured list. Doing so would start any of the trio’s service clock early and grant them major league service time and salary while rehabbing.

Starling Marte Drawing Trade Interest

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With two hits in the Mets’ 5-3 win over the Giants tonight, Starling Marte is now slashing .289/.372/.416 over an even 200 plate appearances this season, which translates to a very solid 129 wRC+.  The veteran hitter’s continued production in his age-36 campaign hasn’t gone unnoticed, as the New York Post’s Mike Puma reports that multiple teams have checked in with the Mets about Marte in the lead-up to the trade deadline.

Marte has served almost exclusively as a designated hitter in 2025, with only a handful of appearances as a corner outfielder.  Initially tabbed as part of a righty/lefty DH platoon with Jesse Winker, Marte has ended up getting more action right-handed pitching than against southpaws, and he took a .793 OPS in 86 PA against lefties and a .762 OPS over 110 PA against righties into action tonight.  Marte is benefiting from a .336 BABIP and he isn’t generating much power, but the former All-Star has shown he is still productive within somewhat limited parameters.

Now in the final season of the four-year, $78MM free agent deal signed in the 2021-22 offseason, Marte has around $6.4MM remaining of his $19.5MM salary for the 2025 campaign.  While not the biggest chunk of change to take on over the season’s final two months, it does seem a little steep for a part-time primary DH, so it is interesting to speculate on what exactly other clubs could be offering Marte, or what the Amazins are asking in return.  New York floated Marte’s name in trade talks this past offseason, with the Mets reportedly willing to cover part of that $19.5MM salary in order to help facilitate a deal.

The Royals were the only team publicly linked to Marte’s market, though obviously no agreement was reached.  Hypothetically, it stands to reason that Kansas City could still be an interested party, given how the Royals are struggling offensively and have gotten next to nothing from their outfielders or their lineup in general.  Marte could be slotted into the Royals’ DH slot moreso than a regular role in the outfield, though K.C.’s acquisition of Randal Grichuk may have filled some of that need with a player who has more defensive utility.

Trading Marte would free up some space within a Mets lineup that is already overloaded in position players.  While the younger members of New York’s infield mix have been inconsistent this year, the Mets would probably prefer to deal a veteran on an expiring contract like Marte before parting ways with a more controllable talent, even if younger players are likewise more attractive to trade suitors.

It is fair to assume the Mets would look to land pitching when trying to deal Marte or any hitter.  The Mets have reportedly shown interest in a number of different starters, and president of baseball operations David Stearns said even after Friday’s Gregory Soto acquisition that the bullpen is still the team’s primary focus as the deadline approaches.  To that end, the Athletic’s Will Sammon added Ryan Helsley to the long list of relievers under consideration, but as of early Sunday morning, the Mets had yet to actually have any talks with the Cardinals about the closer.

Braves Acquire Erick Fedde, Place Grant Holmes On 60-Day IL

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The Braves have acquired right-hander Erick Fedde in a trade with the Cardinals, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports.  Some money is also headed to Atlanta in the deal, with ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez reporting the Cards will be covering the approximately $2.7MM remaining on Fedde’s $7.5MM salary for the 2025 season.  The deal has been officially announced by the Braves, including the detail that the Cards will receive cash considerations or a player to be named later in return.

The corresponding move to fit Fedde into Atlanta’s roster is also noteworthy, as the Braves announced that right-hander Grant Holmes was shifted to the 60-day injured list.  Holmes was placed on the 15-day IL just earlier today due to right elbow inflammation, and the move to the 60-day will effectively end Holmes’ season.

This news adds context to the trade, as while the Braves are well out of contention, Fedde provides Atlanta with a healthy arm in the wake of a multitude of pitching injuries.  Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, Spencer Schwellenbach, AJ Smith-Shawver, and now Holmes are all on the IL for the foreseeable future, leaving the Braves with a skeleton crew rotation and plenty of innings to fill over the two remaining months on the schedule.

St. Louis designated Fedde for assignment earlier this week, and the trade allows the Cardinals to get at least some modicum of a return rather than just eating Fedde’s salary anyway if he’d cleared waivers.  Still, swapping Fedde for this bare-bones return has to be a disappointment for the Cards given how they could’ve landed a much higher trade package by moving Fedde last winter, or even earlier in the 2025 campaign.

It was almost exactly a year ago that the Cards themselves landed Fedde as part of a three-team trade involving the White Sox (Fedde’s previous club) and the Dodgers.  The intent was to add starting help both for the remainder of the 2024 season and into this year, as Fedde is playing on a two-year, $15MM contract signed with Chicago in December 2023.  Fedde posted a 3.30 ERA over 177 1/3 combined innings with the Sox and Cards in 2024, and drew plenty of speculation as a trade candidate during the offseason since the Cardinals were ostensibly looking to get younger.

While the Cards at least considered moving Fedde, they ultimately held onto the righty in order to preserve rotation depth.  It was one non-move of many in a curiously quiet St. Louis offseason, yet the team’s decision to perhaps give it one more go with most of its veteran core has kept the team on the outskirts of contention.  However, the Cards have lost seven of their last 10 games, and with only a 54-53 record, the Fedde DFA was the first clear signal that the team will be looking to sell moreso than buy at the deadline.

Fedde has a 5.22 ERA and a host of dismal advanced metrics over his 101 2/3 innings for St. Louis this season.  The righty was at least delivering solid bottom-line results as recently as mid-June, but his production has fallen off a cliff in the form of a 13.25 ERA over his last five starts and 17 2/3 innings.  Fedde is allowing far more walks and hard contact than he did in 2024, hence the significant dropoff from his solid performance a year ago.

There hasn’t been much to like about the righty’s performance this year, but the trade allows Fedde a change of scenery and perhaps a chance to salvage something from a lost season.  A better showing over the final two months would help Fedde’s case for his next contract on the open market this offseason, and even eating some innings for Atlanta’s rotation could get him on the Braves’ radar for a return visit in 2026, depending on the long-term health of the club’s other starters.

Dodgers, Yankees Among Teams Interested In Brendan Donovan

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Cardinals utilityman Brendan Donovan is drawing trade interest from the Dodgers, Yankees, and multiple other teams, The Athletic’s Katie Woo reports.  St. Louis is open to listening to offers, yet a deal may be on the less likely side since Donovan is arbitration-controlled through 2027 and the Cardinals’ “asking price is sky-high” for the All-Star.

Along these same lines, the Cards are prioritizing moving pitchers, namely one of the multiple arms (Ryan Helsley, Phil Maton, Steven Matz, or Miles Mikolas) who are eligible for free agency after the season.  Erick Fedde is also within that group but the righty is already on waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week.  When it comes to moving position players, Woo writes that the Cards “will not part with one of their position players unless they are blown away by the offer, and their conversations have not progressed past initial check-ins.”  This more limited type of trade discussion extends to Donovan and other position players like Ivan Herrera, Alec Burleson, and Lars Nootbaar, who are all “gathering varying levels of interest.”

This is far from the first time Donovan’s name has appeared in trade rumors, and the Yankees’ interest in his services dates back to at least the 2023-24 offseason.  The Cardinals’ surplus of multi-positional middle infield types in recent years has naturally made rival teams curious about several of those players, and it was just a year ago at the trade deadline that St. Louis dealt from that group in moving Tommy Edman to the Dodgers.  That three-team swap also involving the White Sox ended up being one of the most noteworthy trades of last year’s deadline, given how Edman and Michael Kopech ended up playing key roles in Los Angeles’ World Series championship.

Now in his fourth MLB season, Donovan made an immediate impact from the jump, finishing third in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2022 and winning the first-ever utility Gold Glove.  He has remained a consistently steady level of offense while playing primarily against right-handed pitching, and Donovan is batting .293/.360/.428 with nine homers over 423 plate appearances this season.  These already solid numbers might not reflect his full offensive capability this year, as Donovan’s .363 xwOBA is better than his .344 wOBA.  Donovan doesn’t make much solid contact, but he is one of the league’s harder players to strike out.

Beyond Donovan’s hitting, his ability to play multiple positions makes him particularly valuable to both the Cardinals and any possible trade suitors.  The big majority of his playing time has come at second base and in left field, but Donovan has also logged innings at the other three infield positions and in right field.

This defensive versatility and Donovan’s left-handed bat make him more or less an ideal fit for the Dodgers’ needs, as The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya notes that L.A. would indeed like to add a left-handed hitting outfielder to its position-player mix.  Donovan’s ability to play second base makes him even more attractive for the Dodgers purposes since if he was used at the keystone, Edman would be utilized more primarily as an outfielder, and Andy Pages would move from center to a corner outfield slot.  Max Muncy could be returning from the injured list within a couple of weeks anyway, but Donovan could also help out at the third base position until Muncy is back in action.

Hypothetically, it wouldn’t be out of the question to see Los Angeles again try to land both a versatile position player and a reliever from the Cardinals, since Ardaya writes that the Dodgers are still prioritizing bullpen help as their main deadline need.  This is pure speculation on my part, but since the Dodgers have also been linked to Helsley’s trade market, L.A. could possibly attempt to pry both Helsley and Donovan away at once.  Addressing two needs in a single deal might make the Dodgers a little more open to putting one of their top prospects on the table, as Ardaya wrote earlier this week that L.A. is understandably wary about offering either Dalton Rushing or Alex Freeland in any trade.

New York’s past interest in Donovan notwithstanding, Woo notes that the Yankees may no longer have Donovan on the radar now that Ryan McMahon is wearing the pinstripes.  The most recent supporting suggests that the Yankees are now looking to add a right-handed hitter in the wake of acquiring McMahon (a left-handed hitting third baseman) from the Rockies yesterday.  It could be that Donovan might now be a luxury for the Yankees only if they were to make some other move in the name of lineup balance, though New York probably shouldn’t be entirely ruled out just because Donovan is still a broad upgrade to the roster as a whole.

Donovan and Nootbaar are both under team control through 2027, Burleson through 2028, and Herrera through 2029.  It makes sense that the Cardinals are loath to part with any of these players who may contribute both in the future, and even for the rest of this season, as St. Louis is only 1.5 games back of a wild card slot.  Trading an impending free agent pitcher to address another present need is the club’s preferred situation, as the Cards look to be both buying and selling before the July 31 deadline.

Ryan Helsley Expects To Be Traded

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Ryan Helsley has stood as a logical trade candidate for upwards of ten months now, dating back to the Cardinals’ declaration that they planned to reduce payroll heading into the 2025 season and focus on creating opportunities for young players. St. Louis surprisingly held onto Helsley all offseason and up into deadline season. After holding a Wild Card spot earlier this summer, they’ve gone dropped 13 of their past 19 games and now sit nine games out of the division lead. They’re still just two and a half games back in the Wild Card scene but have three teams to leapfrog.

With the team’s recent slide, indications have been that they’ll wind up operating primarily on the sell side of the market. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported in the past couple days that the Cards are listening on not only Helsley but also relievers Phil Maton and Steven Matz. Goold wrote this morning that the Cardinals aren’t necessarily turning away interest in lefty reliever John King or infielder Nolan Gorman — among other unnamed, more controllable pieces. (Presumably, southpaw JoJo Romero, who’s controlled through just the 2026 season, is obtainable as well.)

The reality seems to be setting in on the roster. Helsley told The Athletic’s Katie Woo tonight that the “likelihood is probably as great as it’s ever been for me to get traded” before going on to add: “I would say it’s 90 percent I go, 10 percent I stay.” Helsley made clear that his preference would be to remain with the Cardinals and win in St. Louis, but that’s not a decision that’s under his control at the moment.

At least five clubs have shown interest in Helsley, per Woo and colleague Will Sammon. The Dodgers are known to have interest in the 31-year-old flamethrower, and the Phillies were connected to him earlier this season. Back in the offseason, the Blue Jays were among the teams with interest, and it stands to reason now that they’re clear deadline buyers, they could revisit their pursuit of the impending free agent.

Helsley is earning $8.2MM in his final season of club control. The Cardinals could make him a qualifying offer and recoup a compensatory pick in the 2026 draft if he turns it down and signs elsewhere, though that would presume continued health and production from Helsley down the stretch. Neither is a guarantee. The most surefire way to extract some future value from the former All-Star is to trade him within the next week.

Helsley is having a nice season relative to the average big league reliever but a down year by his standards. He’s pitched 35 innings and logged a 3.09 ERA but has already blown five saves — more than he did all of last season (four). Helsley’s 25.5% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate have both trended in the wrong direction. He punched out 34.6% of his opponents from 2022-24, but his strikeout rate has now dipped for a third consecutive season. His walk rate is up from both the 8.6% and 8.4% marks he posted in 2024 and 2022, respectively, though it’s better than the 11.6% mark he logged in 2023 and right in line with his overall 2022-24 rate. He’s still averaging better than 99 mph on his fastball, though even his 99.3 mph average represents a modest dip from last year’s 99.6 mph.

That’s not to say Helsley doesn’t have much trade value. He’s one of the most talented relievers on the market, and the asking price on him will be considerably lower than on other marquee relievers like Emmanuel Clase, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax and David Bednar — all of whom are controlled at least one additional season (one for Bednar, two for Duran and Jax, three for Clase). Contending clubs covet power arms with high-leverage track records this time of year, and Helsley still checks those boxes, even if his results have dipped.

If the Cards string together several wins, perhaps they’ll ultimately wind up holding onto Helsley and plan to make him a qualifying offer. As things stand, however, the pitcher himself is bracing for a trade within the next week — and it sounds like several other Cardinals could end up on the move as well.

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