The St. Louis Cardinals are in the middle of a rebuild. The Cardinals have missed the playoffs each of the last two years and are trending toward a third straight year.
That means they'll likely be active this offseason, letting guys go and bringing in younger player, or less expensive players to replace them.
101 EPSN's Brandon Kiley recently revealed one player he believes played his way into the Cardinals' 2026 lineup, and two players that may find a new home this offseason.
Donovan, Nootbaar May Be Playing Final Season in St. Louis
Second baseman Brendan Donovan and outfielder Lars Nootbaar are each on one year contracts with with two remaining years of arbitration. However, with the Cardinals' rebuild, Kiley thinks they might be more useful elsewhere.
"A guy like (Brendan Donovan), a guy like (Lars) Nootbaar who come in and bring a lot of different factors to a lineup, they would make a ton of sense for a contender, setting the table for Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, or setting the table for Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, setting the table for Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani," Kiley said. "Those guys make more sense in those kinds of lineups than what they would potentially hear in St Louis next year."
Donovan has had a very strong season, hitting .279 with a .750 OPS, nine home runs and 45 RBI. He's also displayed plate discipline with 43 walks compared to 60 strikeouts.
Nootbaars numbers are as impressive, hitting just .238. However, his OPS is still over .700 and he's hit 13 home runs on the season.
Brendan Donovan is having his best season yet.
— Trey Hannam (@TJHannam10) May 19, 2025
He’s locked in on a great mindset:
“Warm up to hit — don’t hit to warm up.”
- He trains movement patterns to gain speed without losing the swing that makes him elite pic.twitter.com/Vo5FNkgNA1
Donovan and Nootbaar are mainstays in the Cardinals' lineup, but their value in St. Louis isn't as much as it could be if you have super stars around. Pitchers would then be forced to give them more pitches to hit, because of the presence of the bats around them.
Third baseman Nolan Gorman on the other hand, is a player Kiley thinks the Cardinals will value more. Gorman's hitting just .221 on the year, but his OPS sits at .734 and he's tied with Nootbaar for 13 home runs, but in 20 fewer games.
Nolan Gorman since June 1st (Team Ranking):
— Ethan Hannaford (@echann7) August 19, 2025
- .247 AVG (6th)
- 11 HR (T-1st)
- 29 RBI (3rd)
- 22 BB (T-2nd)
- 54 K (2nd)
- .343 OBP (3rd)
- .493 SLG (2nd)
- .836 OPS (3rd)
- 71.5 MPH Bat Speed (6th)pic.twitter.com/Gy3L6CzaGp
Gorman will enter his first year of arbitration in 2026, and he's making less than $1 million this year. Nootbaar and Donovan are being paid nearly $3 million in 2025.
"Those guys you can find on the market every year for 10, 15, 20 million bucks. Cardinals don't want to pay for that, so that's what makes Gorman's home run power valuable to them. So they don't want to go to the market to spend for it," Kiley said. "I think the way that the Cardinals should be operating right now is with the assumption Gorman actually might have played his way into our lineup in 2026 because of what he brings to the table."
The Cardinals will have some big decisions to make this offseason as they continue their rebuild to try to fit the right pieces together to make it back to the postseason. While Gorman may be a guy that's played himself into that formula, Nootbaar and Donovan may be players that command too much for the Cardinals to commit to.