With the St. Louis Cardinals right on the brink of contention, some are speculating whether they will be buyers or sellers at the MLB trade deadline.
While many would have assumed they would be sellers at the beginning of the season given the youth on their team, they have outperformed expectations. At 36-31, they are currently two games out of the Wild Card. They are right on the brink of looking to make a run now or keep building for the future.
The Athletic’s Jim Bowden believes the Cardinals could still go the seller route, listing a handful of Cardinals players as trade targets for the top contenders in his “MLB trade targets to address the biggest need for each contending team” article.
One Cardinal listed as a potential target is second baseman Brendan Donovan, who could be looked at by the New York Yankees. Here is what Bowden had to say about it:
“The Yankees would like an offensive upgrade for both DJ LeMahieu and Oswald Peraza and can do so at either second or third base since Jazz Chisholm Jr. is willing to play either position. I like the fit with Donovan because he’s a solid two-way player, but the Cardinals are not interested in moving him since they’re in the race.”
Based on Bowden’s comments, it would take a pretty significant skid for the Cardinals to feel the need to trade their most productive hitter. On the off chance this happens, Donovan (.310 AVG, .819 OPS) would be a major upgrade over LeMahieu (.277 AVG, .765 OPS) and Peraza (.172 AVG, .568 OPS).