{"id":553986,"date":"2026-02-04T09:42:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/553986\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T09:42:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:42:44","slug":"cardinals-nearing-blockbuster-3-team-trade-to-complete-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/553986\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Nearing Blockbuster 3-Team Trade to Complete Offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">The St. Louis Cardinals have opted to rebuild their roster over the past year. Rebuilding is one of the more difficult moves to pull off in baseball because the team has to commit to the future while it&#8217;s largely unknown.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">This offseason, the Cardinals have made three big moves to bolster their future. They traded Sonny Gray to the Boston Red Sox early in the winter. Shortly after, they traded Willson Contreras to the Red Sox in a separate deal. Later on, they were able to move Nolan Arenado to the Arizona Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6q\">If you like our content,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google.<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6t\">This has been a very productive offseason for the Cardinals, but it&#8217;s not done yet. On Monday, the Cardinals made the biggest move of their winter that should be the perfect cherry on top of the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Brendan Donovan trade is the cherry on top of the Cardinals offseason<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/01kgg4am9t10jrctcsmw.jpg\" alt=\"St. Louis Cardinals infielder Brendan Donova\" title=\"St. Louis Cardinals infielder Brendan Donova\" width=\"6350\" height=\"3571\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"76\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sep 23, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan (33) runs to third base against the San Francisco Giants during the first inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images | Eakin Howard-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7a\">According to multiple reports, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/2018436206430752919?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">including one from ESPN&#8217;s Jeff Passan<\/a>, the Cardinals are nearing a blockbuster three-team trade with the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays that would send All-Star infielder Brendan Donovan to the Mariners.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7d\">This reported deal would come around a day after the Mariners lost Eugenio Su\u00e1rez to the Cincinnati Reds in free agency. The Mariners also lost Jorge Polanco to the New York Mets earlier this winter.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7g\">While there&#8217;s no reported return in the deal, it&#8217;s safe to assume that this will be the biggest prospect return the Cardinals have received over the past calendar year. It should top the Ryan Helsley trade. It should also top the trio of deals this offseason. Depending on the return, the Cardinals could be set up for a very bright future in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7j\">The only other move the Cardinals could make is a trade that sends JoJo Romero to a contender, but there hasn&#8217;t been much buzz on that front. If this trade that would send Donovan to Seattle is the final move of the Cardinals&#8217; offseason, it would cap off an incredible stretch of six months in St. Louis. The team might be worse now, but the future is much brighter.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7m\">More MLB: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/cardinals\/onsi\/st-louis-cardinals-news\/cardinals-hit-jackpot-landed-next-potential-star-slugger-zach3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cardinals Hit Jackpot, Landed Next Potential Star Slugger<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St. Louis Cardinals have opted to rebuild their roster over the past year. Rebuilding is one of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,4,673,67,4311,4310],"class_list":{"0":"post-553986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cardinals","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-st-louis","12":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","13":"tag-stlouis","14":"tag-stlouiscardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116011712740890857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}