Former Cardinals champ aims extremely high in Brendan Donovan trade dream

The St. Louis Cardinals have remained quiet on the trade front since the offseason-opening trade of Sonny Gray, but they remain a popular topic of conversations even as the Winter Meetings concluded. The team is armed with plenty of trade pieces all along the 26-man roster, but utilityman Brendan Donovan continues to be the highest valued.

Lance Lynn seeks Bryce Miller or similar in return from the Mariners for Brendan Donovan.

While I have been vocal about the necessity of trading Donovan this offseason, I have also been consistent with the thought that the Cardinals do not need to trade him just to make a deal. I have also been wary of any potential overvaluing of the fan favorite, but he is definitely the type of player that can push a good team into a great team. On a recent episode of Cardinal Territory, former Cardinal pitcher Lance Lynn echoed that sentiment and agrees that St. Louis does not have to rush to get a deal involving Donovan done.

Lynn has spoken to the organization's direction multiple times on the show hosted by Jim Hayes, and in a clip shared on Twitter, the pitcher set his asking price from the Mariners for Donovan's services. Seattle was recently reported to be a frontrunner to pry Donnie from St. Louis, but the return shared by Katie Woo centered around prospects rather than major league talent. Lynn understands the benefit of trading a player of Donovan's abilities, so he wants the Cardinals to set their price at Mariners starter Bryce Miller or someone with his similar profile.

The name value of Miller makes this look like an extremely high asking price, but the reality is that Miller has not yet capitalized on his top prospect pedigree. Thanks to injuries and a deep Seattle rotation, the 27-year-old righty has a 4.01 ERA over 402 major league innings, but has demonstrated great command and decent strikeout stuff. Colleague Thomas Gauvain noted that Miller was part of his dream rotation for 2026, and Josh Jacobs pointed to the Mariners starter as a trade target this offseason, so the connection to Miller is not surprising.

Since Seattle is firmly entrenched in their competitive window, dealing away a pitcher they expect 30 starts from might make it tough to stomach such a trade. While in postseason contention, the Mariners would likely prefer to deal from their minor league ranks in order to reinforce their major league lineup, so there may have to be some compromise from both sides. Chaim Bloom has shown his desire to supplement the 26-man roster with quality talent, as evidenced by receiving MLB arm Richard Fitts in return for Gray and signing rotation-stabilizer Dustin May to a one-year deal.

The rotation remains a question for the St. Louis Cardinals, but I see them targeting big league pitching support in whatever remaining deals they have this offseason. To that point, I agree with Lance Lynn when he states that the Cardinals should seek major-league caliber talent in return for a player with Brendan Donovan's talents.