The Astros are back in the mix for Brendan Donovan, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. That’s not surprising, as Houston’s interest in the St. Louis utility player has dated back to at least the trade deadline.
Donovan is an obvious target. The Astros skew very right-handed. They tried to balance the lineup with the deadline trade for Jesús Sánchez from the Marlins. Sánchez was terrible down the stretch and is probably going to be traded or non-tendered within the next week. That leaves the Astros with only Yordan Alvarez as an everyday left-handed bat. Rookie outfielders Zach Cole or Jacob Melton could play their way into the mix, but it’s clear that adding a lefty hitter will be a priority.
There are few better ones known to be available in trade than Donovan. The 28-year-old (29 in January) is coming off a .287/.353/.422 slash across 515 plate appearances. He’s a career .282/.361/.411 hitter over four seasons. Donovan has enough power for 10-15 home runs and 30+ doubles, while he’s a safe bet to hit for average because of his excellent contact skills. Like most lefty hitters, he’s far better against right-handed pitching, but he has reached base at a reasonable .325 clip against southpaws in his career. He fits at the top of a lineup against righties and is playable if unspectacular against same-handed pitchers.
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Donovan has the multi-positional versatility to fit any number of teams. He’s already been linked to the Guardians and Royals this offseason. The Yankees and Dodgers have shown interest in the past. MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk examined various other possibilities last month. Houston would use him mostly at his natural second base position, where they don’t really have an everyday player. They’re still planning to move Jose Altuve between second and left field, where he and Alvarez would divide time when the other isn’t at designated hitter. Donovan can play both corner outfield positions as well, and some teams could feel he’s capable of holding his own at either spot on the left side of the infield.
The Cardinals are committing to a retool under first-year president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom. Donovan is down to his last two seasons of club control. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for a $5.4MM salary. That’ll likely jump into the $8-10MM range for 2027. There’s no indication the Cards will seriously pursue an extension, so an offseason trade seems likely given the amount of interest they’ll receive from teams currently in contention windows. Among their realistic trade candidates (i.e. not including Masyn Winn), Donovan has the best chance of netting an impactful prospect return.
I mean if you’re gonna send cam down to AAA I guess he fits
Feels more like a precursor to an eventual Walker trade.
If anyone would actually trade for him barring the astros picking up significant change
Maybe Asterisks can trade Sanchez back to Fish for crumbs?
Maybe there could be a few names shared of young pitching prospects the Astros have to offer? Pretty sure every team could use Donovan, a very solid bat and excellent defender. Do the Astros have any enticing arms to win the Brendan Donovan auction?
this is my question. they talk about everyone’s interest, but the Cardinals aren’t going to trade him for 3 or 4 scrubs
Feels like most every team could benefit by adding him. Braves please? That would be cool.
With our influx of infielders and fact Dana even said NOT TRADING WALKER OR PAREDES. Altuve needs to be 2nd. Use Cole in LF or something. Or Dezenzo. Altuve is not what needs to be in LF nor Alvarez. Alvarez DH. Will Houston do anything with Dubon. Maybe is Jake tradeable now while he was hot this recent season. We have Urias, Correa, Altuve, Paredes, Walker, Dubon all for the infield. Outfield: Cam if he wakes up or not. Myself should have gone to Corpus like was supposed to last season. Also, we have Cole, Melton, Dezenzo. Cole was great last season. Give him a full season to see what can do. Melton was not same after his injury. Dezenzo was out a good bit of 2nd half. So not sure on what will be like. We know Sanchez could be non-tendered or traded. I do wonder what he could get us if traded. I know with what Dana has done so far has not been great and has us in a pinch money wise. So if this is his last hurrah and Espada too. Neither have been good at all for the team.
The astros dont have the prospects to trade for him. Nothing to see here.