Complete list of 2026 Cardinals draft picks after Brendan Donovan trade overhaul

This year's Major League Baseball Draft is going to be a whole lot of fun for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Chaim Bloom made the biggest swing of the Cardinals' rebuild on Monday, trading away All-Star utilityman Brendan Donovan to the Seattle Mariners in a three-team deal involving the Tampa Bay Rays. In the deal, the biggest name the Cardinals received was top 100 prospect in RHP Jurrangelo Cijntje from the Mariners, alongside OF Tai Peete from Seattle and OF Colton Ledbetter from Tampa Bay. But perhaps the most intriguing part of this deal was the draft capital the Cardinals were able to snag - the 68th overall pick from Seattle and the 72nd overall pick from Tampa Bay.

You can check out our live reactions and breakdown of the trade on the Dealin' the Cards podcast, but I did want to spend some time diving into how important the draft capital the Cardinals acquired is for their rebuild.

The Cardinals have six top 100 picks in the 2026 MLB Draft after the Brendan Donovan trade

For those who are confused by the exchanging of draft picks in this deal, Major League Baseball does not allow trading traditional draft selections, but teams can trade Competitive Balance picks, which only the 10 lowest-revenue clubs and/or the 10 smallest markets are eligible to be given those picks each year. Once those picks are assigned, those teams are free to send them in trades, if they desire.

The Cardinals are a revenue-sharing club for the first time since at least the 1990s, and so they were granted a Competitive Balance A pick (32nd overall) earlier this offseason, and in this deal, they acquired two Competitive Balance B selections (68th and 72nd overall). This now gives the Cardinals six picks in the top 100 of the 2026 MLB Draft: 13th, 32nd, 50th, 68th, 72nd, and 86th.

For a team looking to rebuild, having this many selections is truly invaluable to the front office. News broke yesterday as well that the Cardinals promoted Zach Mortimer to director of amateur acquisitions, meaning he'll be running their drafts moving forward in place of assistant general manager Randy Flores, who has taken on more responsibilities in their new pro scouting department.

In past years, the Cardinals had actually gone into drafts with far fewer picks in the top 100. In 2023 and 2024, St. Louis lost its second-round selections due to the free agent signings of Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray and did not have any competitive balance picks. This meant the Cardinals only had two picks in the top 100 in those drafts, selecting 21st overall and 90th overall in 2023 and then seventh overall and 80th overall in 2024.

The Cardinals have a strong farm system right now, but having six picks in the top 100 gives them a ton of ammunition to further strengthen this system into one of the best in all of baseball, on top of the other names they acquired in this deal and other trades this offseason.

It is worth noting that during Chaim Bloom's time with Boston, his regime was able to hit on some incredible prospects in the draft. Names like Marcelo Mayer and Kyle Teel were first-round picks by Bloom, but they also snagged emerging superstar Roman Anthony with the 79th overall pick in 2022 and top prospect Kristian Campbell with the 132nd overall pick. The more darts you have to throw in the draft, the more chances you have to hit on impact talent, especially inside the top 100 picks.

The other big piece of this puzzle, and one that will allow the Cardinals to be uber aggressive with the players they select, is that now the Cardinals own the second-largest draft bonus pool in 2026, with $16.9 million to dish out to players they select. That is a major development that will be overlooked by many but will dramatically impact their ability to target talent in the draft, knowing they have the financial flexibility to sign who they want.

It hurts to lose a talent like Donovan, and it's the frustrating part of where the Cardinals are at today. The final years of John Mozeliak's regime placed the organization in a really rough spot, and Chaim Bloom is making really tough decisions as he takes over in order to get the Cardinals back to prominence. I wish the Cardinals had been able to keep Donovan, even with the package they got in return, but I see the vision that Bloom has here, and believe it really could help accelerate the Cardinals' rebuild under this new regime.

Taking a step back and looking at all of the deals the Cardinals made this offseason, acquiring Cijntje, Peete, Ledbetter, and these two draft picks, along with names like Brandon Clarke, Yhoiker Fajardo, Blake Aita, Hunter Dobbins, Richard Fitts, and deadline adds like Jesus Baez, Nate Dohm, Frake Elissalt, Mason Molina, Skylar Hales, and Blaze Jordan will put the Cardinals revamped player development and performance group to the test.

The future appears to be bright in St. Louis, but the immediate future will likely bring a bit more pain than we'd like. But that's typically required of clubs if they want to get back to contending, and Bloom knows that.