Leader of Cardinals' young core named one of the best in MLB at his position

It's about time that Brendan Donovan gets some respect on the national level!

The St. Louis Cardinals' utility man is set to be their everyday second baseman in 2025, and according to MLB Network's "The Shredder", he's the fourth-best second baseman in the game right now.

Each year, MLB Network creates top 10 lists at every position in the game, allowing different analysts to submit their own top 10s, having fan votes, and ultimately seeing what "The Shredder" says, which creates its lists based on past performance, offensive and defensive metrics (including both advanced statistics and traditional numbers) and analysis by the MLB Network research team.

It's no mistake that only names like Ketel Marte, Jose Altuve, and Marcus Semien outrank Donovan on this year's list of best second basemen. Donovan, since debuting in 2022, has quietly been one of the best-hitting second basemen in the entire game, but since he's constantly bouncing around the field for St. Louis playing different positions, he's rarely stacked up to his contemporaries at second base. Since 2022 though, Donovan ranks second in xwOBA among all second basemen, a stat that measures a player's expected production while also taking into account the quality of their contact.

If you're not a fan of predictive metrics like xwOBA, Donovan also ranks top three among all current second basemen since entering the league in average (.280), on-base percentage (.364), and wRC+ (119), all strong indicators of the kind of offensive production Donovan brings to the table. In fact, since 2022, Donovan boasts the 14th-best on-base percentage in all of baseball, giving him a truly elite talent (on-base skills) to hang his hat on.

(Bonus to those who noticed it - Nolan Gorman was fifth among second basemen since 2022 in xwOBA. Maybe don't give up on his offensive upside so soon!)

Personally, I believe Donovan was robbed of even better metrics and more recognition than this by how unlucky the 2023 season was for him. Donovan started that season cold at the plate, but after a strategic adjustment where he decided to be more aggressive early in counts, Donovan took off in a major way.

Donovan detailed that adjustment to me at Winter Warm-Up last year, and from May 21st until the last game of his season in 2024, Donovan posted a .314/.398/.485 slash line (.883 OPS), good for a 144 wRC+, which was 17th best among all hitters during that stretch. Unfortunately for Donovan, he was battling a significant elbow injury for much of that stretch that caused him to DH most games, and after the Cardinals waived the white flag on their season, they shut down the red-hot Donovan so that he could be ready to play in the field again in 2024.

While Donovan's 2024 season was the weakest offensively of his entire career, he did show that the power he was tapping into in 2023 was real, slugging 14 home runs and driving in 73 runs for St. Louis in what was a horrible offense that year. If Donovan can marry his improved power to his incredible on-base skills as he did in 2023, he'll easily get back to that 127 wRC+ range he was in during 2022.

While we think Donovan will have a more permanent home at second base in 2025, depending on the status of Nolan Arenado and how other players perform, he could bounce around once again. Donovan has never been a guy to complain about that though, as part of what makes him so valuable is how he can consistently impact games both offensively and defensively, no matter what position he is playing.

If MLB Network did a ranking of the best utility men in baseball today, Donovan would have a strong case for the number one spot (unless someone counted Mookie Betts in that conversation). He has consistently been underrated at the national level and even amongst some Cardinals fans, but it's great to see a list like this that gives Donovan the proper respect that he deserves. Now the Cardinals just need to get him locked up on a long-term deal!