Cardinals Trade Rumors Update! Seattle Wants Donny? Willson Would Waive No-Trade Clause?

Cardinals Trade Rumors Update! Seattle Wants Donny? Willson Would Waive No-Trade Clause?

With the MLB winter meetings approaching, let’s take a moment to take stock of where the Cardinals stand with a number of key trade possibilities that could develop in the coming days. We’ll talk about it coming up on Bshave Daily. [Music] What’s going on everyone and welcome into this edition of BHA Daily. Brendan Schaefer with you. It is Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025. jumping on for a quick hitter. Trying to catch you guys up on the latest in terms of trade rumors, reports, and news that could be coming for the Cardinals. We don’t have anything concrete yet following the Sunny Gray trade from last week, two weeks ago. Time kind of flies around the holidays. Hopefully everybody had a really good Thanksgiving weekend. I certainly had a lot of fun with family. But jumping back into talk some Cardinals here with you guys today. Cardinals trade Sunny Gray. The question is what’s next? Well, Katy Woo reporting that Wilson Contrarus is now more open-minded to waving the no trade clause. I think that’s something that makes a lot of sense if you just think about A to B to C. A, Sunny Gray is traded. B, Wilson Contrarus goes, “Oh, okay. Maybe the Cardinals really are doing the rebuild thing this time. As much as I love to be here and love St. Louis, love my teammates, love my situation, love being a Cardinal.” Okay. Kind of see the writing on the wall and then C you get to that point where hey I mean if I bloom comes to you and says hey this is a real possibility what would you think of it? Maybe he’s more open-minded right and that’s the sort of thing that I I think all along was a possibility. It makes sense like I said if you take it from A to B to C to have it reach this logical conclusion. But now that it’s played out, we can sort of go to that place. And Katie, we were reporting it. That tells you that it’s definitely in the offing that something could be coming there. And congrats, by the way, to Katie. She just announced earlier today, or it was announced that she’s taking a job covering the Dodgers out in Los Angeles with the Athletics. So, she’ll definitely be missed in St. Louis for great coverage. But, uh, just wanted to give that shout out. But, Wilson’s potentially being traded. It makes a lot of sense. I think with his contract, it’s more movable. You know, I don’t know that the Cardinals are going to have to eat the same level of money. They ate 20 million of the Sunny deal out of 40 that they were still obligated to pay him. I don’t think it’ll be quite to that level with Wilson Contrarus. He’s still owed about the same, but it’s over a 2-year span plus 5 million of it is an option for 2028. They’re going to have to buy him out basically. I think the contract value would be 17 million if that option for 2028 would be picked up. But there’s a $5 million buyout. So it’s about$ 188 million per year for the next two years and then the buyout which you add it in there because it is it’s guaranteed to Wilson Conturus. The team that has them is obligated to pay it, right? And so that’s why I I mention it and bring it up. And so really it’s more like a 20 million per year over the next two assuming that the $17 million option would be declined and you’d be owing him the buyout at that point. Same amount as Wilson or excuse me, same amount as Sunny but over two years. And frankly, Wilson Contrera is still a very productive hitter and I think there would definitely be some interest in Wilson Contrarus this off season. So it makes sense from that perspective. Makes sense from the Cardinals perspective of being able to save some money. Makes sense from the perspective in the same way that it was with Sunny Gray. It’s not that he’s not a productive player for a big league team trying to win ball games, but was the juice totally worth the squeeze on a veteran of his caliber, of his stature, of his experience level to be paying what was pretty much a market value for Sunny Gray? I mean beyond that really 35 million plus the 5 million buyout would have been 40. I think he’s getting 41 total after the trade was added on another million dollars with Boston. Was that really worthwhile for a Cardinal team that knows it’s going nowhere fast in 2026? No, not really. And so they make the move that they make. They get out from under half of the contract. Beneficial to them and I think beneficial in that because they did show willingness we’re going to eat half of the contract. They got a couple of pitching prospects. one prospect, one guy that’ll probably plug into their rotation and makes perfect sense. With Wilson, I feel like the production is similar at his position relative to Sunny at his position and maybe even a little bit more consistent. But the value of a first baseman is not the same as the value of a front-end starting pitcher or even a middle of the rotation starting pitcher. Sunny has characteristics of both, but has high upside because of the strikeouts and because of the pedigree that all right, you might get a a front end of the rotation type of season out of him, even at his age as he gets into his mid-30s. With Wilson not a catcher anymore, like I think that was predestined, too. Even when the Cardinals signed him to the 5-year contract, they were really, and I can’t say this for sure, somebody could tell me in report, well, there was other teams that were interested in in signing him as a catcher, but it seemed like the Cardinals were really the main team that was after Wilson Contrarus to be like, yeah, we want you as the franchise catcher. They were also the most prominent team with such a need in that winter because of Yier Molina retiring. But it always felt like the last couple of years of Wilson’s deal, you know, he could transition to DH, he could transition to first base, whatever. And he’s done that. And he’s a pretty darn good defender, actually. I think impressive the way that he was able to assimilate to that role defensively. And so if you’re another team, you’d say, “Look, man, 800 OPS is is probably what you’re going to get.” He was 840, 820 his first two years with the Cardinals and then this past season was still a 791 and still a very productive hitter. I think that works in the middle of of a batting order for a contending team. Is he your DH? Is he your first baseman? Could you stick him in a corner outfield? I don’t know. But I think he’s got enough flexibility there in the bat. If he is batting fifth for you or sixth for you on even a really really good lineup, that’s good enough. Like that really is a helpful thing. He’s making $18 million a year. Okay, Cardinals can eat a few million of that and you know get it to maybe more palatable for the acquiring team. And if they do that, maybe the Cardinals end up with better prospects, better players that they’re getting in return. As long as you are now casting a wider net, I think it’ll make it easier for the Cardinals to conceivably get that deal done. Whereas if Wilson Contreras had said, “Yeah, kind of limited. I really like St. Louis,” which is what he said at first, then you don’t really know what you’re going to feel until you see Sunny Gray traded and you’re Wilson Contrarus and it kind of dawns on you like, “Oh, here’s what we’re going to be dealing with.” And maybe before it would have, yeah, I’d love to play with my brother in Milwaukee. Like that would be my place I’d be willing to go and if they’re not a suitor, then it’s like, okay, we’re not going to be able to get anything done. Kind of like Aronado last year, very limited. And even one of the places that he was willing to go, it turns out he wasn’t. And so they there was no deal. Whereas now with Contraras, if it’s a yeah, I want to go to a contender, you know, go to a place where I can be a be a key cog in a contending team, try to win another world championship, then I think you have an opportunity as a Cardinals to there’s going to be a few suitors you would have to imagine and potentially get that done. The other reason I think it’s beneficial to the Cardinals is and not just like the salary of it, you know, being able to save some money. I continue to reiterate, I don’t think the Cardinals need to slash payroll further. uh it may be a goal to do so of the dwits, but I don’t think they need to do it that way. And if they continue to slash payroll, I would like to think that they would then dip back into free agency and kind of redistribute some of that money. Time will tell. Maybe they just pocket it for a year or two. We will see and we’ll talk about whatever comes of that when it happens. But I do think you have a perfect fit on your roster for who would be the regular first baseman in Alec Burles who’s cost controlled, not a free agent for a while. So, he’s not really somebody that it makes sense to trade right now either, unless you’re getting just a massive offer for him of a team that says we’ve got to have this player. And then I think you consider any offer. I don’t think there’s really anybody on this team that is untouchable to the caliber of you couldn’t be blown away by an offer. Like would be shocked if they would trade a Burley or a Mason win especially. Um, you know, on the other side of it, it’s like, yeah, does it really make sense to trade Jordan Walker right now? Not really, because I don’t think the value is there. And then on the pitching side, like you’re not trading probably any of your pitching prospects. You wouldn’t think. I just don’t think realistically you’re getting the offers that would make you do something like that. That’s not the mode the Cardinals are in. And JJ Weatherhol obviously another one, but he’s not actually on the team yet. So when I say guys that are on the team that would be considered untouchable, he doesn’t even really apply. But next year, this coming year, you think you’ll end up making his debut. But Burlesen slots right in. It’s like he did a really nice job becoming an outfielder, but it probably makes more sense to have him as an infielder. Um, and then you can kind of figure out, okay, does that mean that we don’t have to worry about can we find playing time for Jordan Walker? Obviously, if he’s not deserving of the playing time based on his production, that’s a different conversation. But I think if you’re going to not trade him, you’re going to run him out there because it’s a year where it’s like sinker swim. If it doesn’t work out, we we did our due diligence. We did our best with it and we tried to turn this first round pick into, you know, the type of player that we thought he could become. He’s obviously gone to drive line and doing all the things this offseason to try to to to reach that potential. And I think again in a year where it’s going to be not the same in terms of like nitpicking the daily lineup and nitpicking the the the the record and say, “Oh, did you leave wins on the table by running out a player day after day who wasn’t really performing?” Yeah, that’s kind of going to be what it’s all about even more to more of a degree than it was in 2025. I think that’ll just be like part of the deal in 2026. So, I think it makes a lot of sense to have Jordan Walker out there 140 games. Like just whatever matchups, not matchups, whatever. Just play him. See what happens. And if if he turns it around and finds a confidence from that, then great. You’ve got yourselves a fixture for future years. And if not, then then not. But I I think there’s you’re already to that point of diminishing returns on well, let’s get what we can for him in a trade. I think that I think it’s kind of the people have seen the downside that they’ve seen potentially, you know, what can go wrong for this player. And so I don’t think the offers are going to be there. And so potentially if there is a contrar trade moving Berles to first base, you open up. Now we know for sure right field Jordan Walker can probably be there. And then in left field, are you trading Lars Nupar? What’s the status there? Uh it sounds as though according to the reporting by Katie Woo that teams aren’t necessarily deterred, she writes, from the idea that his early season availability is in question in terms of what that would look like via trade. Now, we’ll see if, you know, that comes to fruition based on, hey, if the Cardinals do trade him, what’s the price they get back? And we can question whether or not the the return was impacted at all by his his current situation recovering from the the double heel surgery effectively with the the Hagglland’s deformities that he had shaved down and now is questionable at at best for opening day. We’ll see what that ends up looking like. But if he’s around, plug him in when he’s ready, midappril to May to June, July. And and look, if he’s back to being Lars newar, and I know some people he’s a guy that has a lot of uh there’s narrative that comes with him and and people have different interpretations of what even back to being Lars newar means, but certainly his numbers last year were not as productive as he had been previously in his career. So if he’s back to being like a 10% above league average, 15% above league average hitter and solid enough left field defense and and a year and a half left on the contract, who’s or or of the team control, I should say. Who’s to say that Lars Nupar then doesn’t command even more in a trade in July for a Cardinals team that’s not competing? And if you heck you could trade Contrus, you could trade Nupar and maybe you even trade Brennan Donovan. We’ll get to that here in a moment. Then maybe the Cardinals, as I mentioned, if they’re trading away a lot of salary because they’ll still be working on the Aronado thing and and getting rid of whatever salary they possibly can there. I don’t think the return in that trade is nearly as important. uh you you accomplish those things and then maybe you have freed up enough cash to potentially say, you know what, there is this outfielder that’s in out there in the ether that we think let’s sign him to a contract and have him be our left fielder. Or you have, you know, somebody else that comes through and ends up being a perfect answer for it from within the system or or if you get one of the trades, you get an outfielder back, whatever the case may be, that could end up being your answer in left field. We’ll kind of have to wait and see what the Cardinals decide to do with that and what they ultimately do with Newbar in the same way that we will have to see what they’ll do with Brendan Donovan. And the latest report that we’ve got to discuss on that is one out of Seattle actually, Adam Jude, who covers the Mariners for the Seattle Times, has an article out. Here are the Mariners possible infield options heading into MLB winter meetings, which uh will begin this coming Sunday in Orlando. I will not be there this year. I’ve covered it a number of times in past years, but uh I will not be going this year with uh the the baby due within a little bit more than a month. So, we’re excited about that at home. But yeah, not the time for me to be uh traveling for that. So, we read about what Adam Jude is writing for the Seattle Times and mentions at length Brendan Donovan potentially as a name that the Mariners would be interested in. He writes that the Mariners had Donovan on their radar a year ago and again they’ve now expressed interest in him and uh obviously nothing we don’t know already that Donovan attracting attention from a lot of teams as uh somebody with a relatively affordable price tag for the coming season in the the 5 to6 million range through arbitration and young enough to potentially offer that contract extension five six years you know whatever that could look like and so that’s a name that is brought up there by uh a Seattle writer in terms of the fit there. Now, obviously for Cardinals fans who have followed this saga, it’s been last few years this kind of dosey-do that we’ve done. I don’t know how much tangible conversation there has been between the Cardinals and Mariners, but we’ve been able to see from afar, hey, the Cardinals need pitching. Hey, the Cardinals have these extra left-handed bats. Hey, the Mariners maybe could use a left-handed bat themselves. Why don’t we hook up and and make something happen here? Because the Mariners have had all these really, really talented starting pitchers. But I think it gets to a point where it’s like, uhoh, have some of these starting pitchers almost made themselves to be so valuable that now the Cardinals can’t really get any of them because for a while it was like, well, you’re not getting George Kirby, but maybe you could get Logan Gilbert. Well, you’re not getting Logan Gilbert, but maybe they would trade a Brian Woo. And now Brian Woo has had two consecutive rock solid seasons uh with a sub3 RA. He was 15 and seven with a 2.94 this past year. And so now I think you’re in the category and and we’ll talk more as as this potentially heats up if the Mariners thing grows some additional legs. But Bryce Miller is a guy who we’ve talked about, but he’s the one that hasn’t quite performed. A 5.6 RA last year uh in in half a season or so, 18 starts. So that’s kind of what we’re looking at is these names to potentially follow, keep an eye on and and figure out, you know, which of these guys are going to be dealt for the Cardinals because we do definitely believe that there are more trades in the offing. Uh Contras’ name definitely added to that list. We know that the Aronado stuff is looming and eventually going to come to fruition. It has to. And uh Donovan, Nupar, and more potentially. It just depends on how active Lamb Bloom and company want to be. But the winter meetings coming up is certainly a place where they could choose to do just that. So, we’ll keep you posted with what is out there and break it down, analyze it as we do here on Bshave Daily. Make sure to hit that subscribe button and be checking out all the content as well. Doing daily videos and shows over on STL Sports Central, Card Central 365. That’ll do it for this edition though of Bshave Daily. Appreciate you guys as always and we’ll talk to you next time on Bshave Daily. Peace.

Let’s dive into the latest on St. Louis Cardinals trade rumors, rumblings and reports ahead of the MLB Winter Meetings, which begin Sunday in Orlando!

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