One-of-a-kind prospect on the table for Cardinals in Brendan Donovan deal

The suitors continue to pile in for the St. Louis Cardinals, but the organization has yet to find the perfect match in deal surrounding their most valuable piece. While vague rumors have been floating around all offseason to this point, at least one concrete name has been mentioned that should move the needle in a trade involving Brendan Donovan.

While the Mariners have been listed among the favorites for landing utility man Brendan Donovan in a deal, there had been few confirmed reports linking specific players that could return to St. Louis. There was a solid update on the Seattle front that at least piqued the attention of Cardinals fans across Twitter. According to Mariners beat writer Ryan Divish, Seattle is willing to send former first-round pick Jurrangelo Cijntje to St. Louis to help create a deal.

For those unfamiliar with Cijntje, he has been in national headlines for a few years, as the top-100 prospect is the first switch-pitcher since Pat Venditte. The fact that both of these players could throw with either arm is where the similarities end between the two, however. Venditte was a 20th-round selection and immediately profiled as a specialty reliever, armed with mediocre fastballs and differing release points. Cijntje, though, sits in the low 90s from the left side while hovering in the 95 mph range with the right arm, touching 98 mph with a solid mix of secondary pitches. While Venditte was a reliever during his professional time, the younger ambidextrous hurler worked almost exclusively as a starter during his first season of affiliated baseball.

The overall results for Cijntje were a mixed bag on the stat sheet, but the intrigue is there for the 22-year-old, who already made seven starts in Double-A. In 26 games, 23 starts in 2025, Cinjntje went 5-7 over 108.1 innings with a 3.99 ERA. He flashed the electric stuff at times, putting up a 9.97 K/9 for the season, but that was counteracted with a 4.24 BB/9 rate, showing how difficult it may be for a pitcher to be in sync from both sides of the rubber in the same game. He was also much more effective as a lefty, holding right-handed hitters to 0.78 WHIP and striking out 76 batters in 66.2 innings. The command was also much better, as Cijntje only walked 12 batters over that workload compared to 39 free passes in 40.1 innings as a righty.

The scouting reports say that Cijntje could be a mid-rotation arm as a righty and possesses good enough stuff from the left side to be a solid big league reliever. If the Cardinals were to strike a deal for the switch-pitcher, it can be reasonably assumed that they will continue to have him develop as a starter and work to push that inning load up near the 150 mark. How his body responds to using both arms instead of one is an interesting case study and will be one for whichever organization he is with to figure out. For me, it would be a fun story in a season that may be otherwise dry of intriguing storylines.