Author: Darragh McDonald

The Mariners, Rays and Cardinals officially announced a three-team deal that sends infielder/outfielder Brendan Donovan to Seattle. The full breakdown is as follows:

• The Mariners send infielder Ben Williamson to the Rays, as well as prospects Jurrangelo Cijntje and Tai Peete and a competitive balance round B pick (#68 overall) to the Cardinals, receiving infielder/outfielder Brendan Donovan from the Cardinals.
• The Cardinals send infielder/outfielder Brendan Donovan to the Mariners, getting prospects Jurrangelo Cijntje and Tai Peete plus a competitive balance round B pick (#68 overall) from the Mariners, as well as receiving outfield prospect Colton Ledbetter and a competitive balance round B pick (#72 overall) from the Rays.
• The Rays send outfield prospect Colton Ledbetter and a competitive balance round B pick (#72 overall) to the Cardinals, receiving infielder Ben Williamson from the Mariners.

A Donovan trade has felt inevitable for quite a while. The Cardinals have been leaning harder into a rebuild this winter. They tried to kick off a reset last offseason but struggled to move their veteran players with no-trade clauses and ended up mostly standing pat. With president of baseball operations John Mozeliak ceding the reins to new president Chaim Bloom after the 2025 campaign, it became clear that the club would push harder to focus on the future.

Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras all had no-trade clauses in their contracts and seemed reluctant to approve deals in the 2024-25 offseason. As last year was winding down, they all publicly expressed a greater openness to playing for new teams in 2026. That has now come to fruition for all three. Gray and Contreras were both traded to the Red Sox, while Arenado landed with the Diamondbacks.

Donovan’s situation was slightly different. Those other three guys were all veterans making eight-figure salaries. Moving them out of St. Louis was partially about slashing the payroll and also about opening up opportunities for younger players as part of the rebuild. Donovan, on the other hand, is still in his arbitration seasons. He will make a relatively modest $5.8MM in 2026 and would be due a raise in 2027.

It wouldn’t be necessary to trade Donovan for financial reasons at that price. But with the Cards expecting their rebuild to last a few years, it made sense to make Donovan available since he’s just two years away from free agency. An extension was another possibility but Donovan is now 29, so he’ll be going into his age-31 season in his first free agent year, and it’s unclear if the Cards will be competitive by then.

Donovan was a case where the St. Louis front office wouldn’t have to worry about the contract and could focus on simply bringing back as much talent as possible. With his modest salary and inability to block trades, the Cards could scour the league to see what teams were willing to pay in terms of prospect capital. Since Donovan can play all over the diamond, with experience at all four infield positions and the outfield corners, almost any contender could fit him onto the roster.

It’s not just defensive versatility that Donovan brings to the table. In his four big league seasons, he has been remarkably consistent with a contact-based approach at the plate. His strikeout rate has been in the 12 to 15% range in each season of his career, during a time when the league average is usually around 22% or so. He has also drawn walks at a rate right around league par. He doesn’t have huge power but has hit at least 10 home runs in each of the past three seasons.

Put it all together and Donovan has a career .282/.361/.411 slash line. That translates to a 119 wRC+, indicating he has been 19% better than league average at the plate overall. Each of his four seasons has ended with a wRC+ between 115 and 127. A consistently above average hitter with an affordable salary who can capably play many different positions made Donovan a good fit for many teams and he reportedly received interest from about half the clubs in the league. He underwent sports hernia surgery in October but that doesn’t seem to have put a damper on his market and there has been no reporting to suggest he won’t be healthy for spring training.

The Mariners certainly stood out as one of the best fits, if not the very best. They went into the winter with some question marks in various positions but also potential internal solutions. They finished 2025 with Jorge Polanco as their regular second baseman and Eugenio Suárez at third. Both became free agents and have since agreed to deals with different clubs, Polanco with the Mets and Suárez the Reds.

Seattle had interest in bringing both back but it also would have been a bit awkward to sign either. Putting Polanco back at second would have blocked Cole Young. He debuted in 2025 and didn’t have immediate success, with a .211/.302/.305 line on the year. However, he may have been held back by a .247 batting average on balls in play, as his 10.9% walk rate and 18.3% strikeout rate were both quite good. The M’s presumably don’t want to give up on him just based on that initial exposure to the big leagues. Middle infield prospect Michael Arroyo is also not far off, having reached Double-A in 2025. Ryan Bliss showed some promise before he spent most of 2025 on the injured list.

At third base, the Mariners already gave some big league time to Williamson last year. He didn’t hit much but got really strong reviews for his glovework, getting credited with eight Defensive Runs Saved in 703 innings. That gave them a glove-first floor at the position.

Meanwhile, they have Colt Emerson lurking. A consensus top 20 prospect coming into 2026, he crushed High-A and Double-A in 2025, getting a late promotion to Triple-A for six games. He could be the long-term shortstop but his glovework is considered a bit behind his bat. With J.P. Crawford signed through 2026, Emerson could theoretically cover third in 2026 and then move over to short for 2027. However, he is only 20 years old and has barely reached Triple-A, so there’s no guarantee of that scenario playing out as scripted.

There’s also a bit of uncertainty in right field, where the Mariners have a cluster of guys including Víctor Robles, Dominic Canzone, Luke Raley and Rob Refsnyder. Robles was injured for most of 2025 and struggled when on the field. The other three guys have mostly found success in platoon roles, Canzone and Raley from the left side and Refsnyder the right.

Take all those situations into account and Donovan’s appeal becomes clear. His multi-positional abilities will allow the club to bounce him around depending on who else is healthy and producing. Perhaps he will start out projected at second base, since that is the position he has played most in his career. But if Young breaks out or Bliss bounces back, Donovan can be moved to third. With Williamson now leaving for Tampa, Donovan could cover the hot corner until Emerson charges forth and takes that spot. If second and third are both taken over by younger guys, then Donovan could see more time in the outfield. As injuries pop up throughout the year, the picture will change and Donovan can shift.

Donovan’s contact approach was likely also a part of the appeal. The Mariners had one of the highest strikeout rates in the majors in both 2023 and 2024, with a 25.9% rate in the former and a 26.8% clip in the latter. They made a concerted effort to get that down in 2025, dropping it to 23.3%, but that was still one of the seven highest rates out of the 30 clubs in the majors.

To get Donovan, the Mariners are dipping into their strong farm system but aren’t giving up any of their top guys. Cijntje, 23 in May, was Seattle’s first-round pick in 2024. The M’s took him 15th overall and signed him with a $4.8809MM bonus.

One of the most unique prospects, Cijntje primarily throws with his right arm but also throws with his left. He can get his fastball to the upper 90s with both arms but his lefty velocity is a tad lower. Basically, he has been working as a traditional righty starter but then occasionally switching to the left side when facing a lefty hitter. The potential outcomes with such a prospect are quite wide, as it’s never really been seen before. Pat Venditte pitched with both arms and was able to carve out a big league career from 2015 to 2020, but as a journeyman reliever.

Cijntje, on the other hand, seems capable of being a big league starter with his right arm. He posted a 3.99 ERA in 108 1/3 minor league innings last year. Baseball America recently ranked him the #7 prospect in a strong Seattle system.

Whether he would still mix in some lefty work in the long run is undetermined. Daniel Kramer of MLB.com reported yesterday that Cijntje would be mostly focusing on his work as a righty in spring training. He was going to still throw as a lefty in some bullpen work but not in games.

The Cardinals will presumably shed some light on what they have in mind for Cijntje, though the team announced him as a right-handed pitcher in their press release. Whether it’s as a switch-pitcher or a traditional righty, he will give them some extra pitching depth, which has been their main target this winter. They also added Richard Fitts and Brandon Clarke in the Gray trade, Hunter Dobbins, Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita in the Contreras deal and then Jack Martinez in the Arenado swap.

Some of those pitchers are immediate candidates for big league work but that shouldn’t be the case with Cijntje. He hasn’t yet reached Triple-A and has only seven starts at the Double-A level. If the switch-pitching experiment were to continue, he should arguably require more development time than a standard prospect, since it would be such an unprecedented path that there’s no map. He won’t be Rule 5 eligible until December of 2027, so the Cards could be very patient if they wanted, especially with the major league club not being competitive in the short term.

Peete, 20, was selected 30th overall in the 2023 draft and signed via a $2.5MM bonus. He has huge tools but also big question marks. In 2025, he got into 125 High-A games. He hit 19 home runs and stole 25 bases but also struck out in 30.6% of his plate appearances. Initially a shortstop who also dabbled at second and third, the Mariners moved him to the outfield last year, mostly in center but also with a decent amount of time in left.

It’s a long-term play with wide error bars but BA recently gave Peete the #10 spot in the Seattle system. The fact that he’s already striking out at such a high rate is worrisome, as hitters generally strike out more as they climb the minor league ladder and face tougher pitching. But his outfield defense is considered strong even though he just moved there, and there’s power in the bat. The ingredients are potentially there but St. Louis will have to be patient since he’s not close to the majors and needs some refinement.

Ledbetter, 24, was a second-round pick of the Rays in 2023. He profiles as a guy who can do a lot of things well but without a standout tool. He played 123 Double-A games last year, hitting seven home runs and stealing 37 bases while playing all three outfield spots. His 9.5% walk rate and 23.9% strikeout rate were both close to normal.

For the Rays, they are giving up Ledbetter and a draft pick but presumably feel Williamson is a worthwhile near-term upgrade to the big league squad, whereas Ledbetter and the pick wouldn’t be helping the team for a few years.

As mentioned, Williamson profiles as a glove-first third baseman, but he also has minor league experience at the middle infield spots. The Rays have one of the best young third basemen in Junior Caminero, who just wrapped up a 45-homer season in his age-21 campaign. His defense wasn’t especially well regarded, so Williamson could perhaps sub in for him late in games for better glovework.

The Rays traded away Brandon Lowe but then replaced him at second base by acquiring Gavin Lux. Hitting from the left side, Lux needs a platoon partner, as he has a career .269/.344/.406 line against righties but .198/.277/.260 against lefties. Williamson is a righty and hit better against southpaws in his debut last year, so perhaps he can help the Rays shield Lux. Williamson also has options and could be sent to the minors if complementing Lux and Caminero doesn’t get him enough playing time.

Ultimately, this deal is about the Mariners making a big upgrade to their team. They just went to the ALCS in 2025 and almost made it to the World Series, before a heartbreaking loss in game seven. Donovan adds to the 2026 and 2027 teams while also giving the club the flexibility to find roles for some of their younger guys who could be long-term pieces. He doesn’t break the bank financially and didn’t require the club to part with any of its best prospects.

The Cardinals cash in a guy who wasn’t going to be much use to them during their rebuild. They’ve added some more young talent to the system and also cleared more playing time for players who could be part of the next competitive cycle, including JJ Wetherholt, Thomas Saggese, Nolan Gorman, Joshua Baez and others. They also picked up two reasonably high draft picks to add a couple more prospects in July. That’ll likely add around $2.5MM to their bonus pool as well.

Further trades are theoretically possible. Lefty reliever JoJo Romero is an impending free agent and a natural trade candidate. He has stayed with the Cardinals thus far, so perhaps they haven’t been bowled over by the offers, which could lead to him staying in St. Louis until the summer deadline. Lars Nootbaar is two years from free agency, like Donovan, but he may begin the season on the injured list due to heel surgery. He has been in some rumors but the Cards may hold him until he shows he’s healthy, then make him available in the summer as well.

Though a Donovan trade has been discussed all winter, it took most of the offseason to come together. Presumably, that’s due to the other participants in the game of musical chairs. The offseason began with free agency offering other infielders, including Suárez and Polanco but also Bo Bichette, Alex Bregman, Luis Arráez and more.

The chairs started filling up in recent weeks. The Cubs reached an agreement with Bregman in mid-January. Not long after, Bichette landed with the Mets. The Giants were reportedly making a strong push for guys like Donovan but also Nico Hoerner of the Cubs and CJ Abrams of the Nationals. Instead, they pivoted to a one-year deal with Arráez this weekend. Suárez lingered unsigned until reaching an agreement with the Reds in recent days.

After the Mariners, the Red Sox were one of the clubs most frequently connected to Donovan. They seem likely to let Marcelo Mayer replace Bregman at third but don’t have a great solution at second base. Reportedly, Donovan wasn’t considered a perfect fit because the lineup is already heavy on lefties, but they now have one less option available. Rumors have been swirling about Isaac Paredes but it’s unclear if the Astros have any willingness to deal him.

Katie Woo and Chad Jennings of The Athletic first reported that the Mariners were close to getting Donovan in what was likely a three-team trade. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the Rays were the third team. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that Tampa was expected to get Williamson. Joel Sherman of The New York Post first reported on Cijntje going to the Cards. Adam Jude and Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times first reported Peete going to the Cards. Nightengale first had Tampa sending out a prospect and a comp B pick. Sherman first reported Ledbetter’s inclusion. Nightengale then specified the full breakdown. Passan reported that the agreement was in place and that Seattle was sending the #68 pick to St. Louis.

Photos courtesy of Eakin Howard, Jeff Curry, Kevin Jairaj, Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images