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The St. Louis Cardinals hosted this annual "Winter Warm-Up" this past weekend, and it provided us with an opportunity to chat with players, manager Oliver Marmol, President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak, Owner Bill DeWitt Jr., and Team President Bill DeWitt III.
Big thanks to the Cardinals for the invitation to join them for the media components of each day, as I was able to sit in on each of these press conferences, get a feel for the room, and ask questions to those who took the podium.
While there were great nuggets of information from everyone who spoke this weekend, I wanted to highlight eight members of the Cardinals organization that impressed me the most this weekend. Whether it was things they said or how others spoke about them, I came away from the weekend really looking forward to seeing what these eight men have in store this coming year.
Brendan Donovan
You may have already read my piece on Donovan from this weekend, but the buzz around the room as we talked to him and his teammates is that the soon-to-be 27-year-old (happy early birthday!) sounds like an emerging leader in the Cardinals' clubhouse, if he wasn't in that role already.
Donovan has been a "driver" this offseason, pushing teammates like Jordan Walker to improve during their offseason training and being a vocal leader in the team group chat. Donovan has continued to get better and better as he has established himself at the big-league level. The makeup is there, the bat is underrated, and the versatility is invaluable.
You can check out more of my thoughts on Donovan's leadership role with the club in the piece above and I'm working on a breakdown of some offensive adjustments I asked him about on Saturday.