The most painful trade the Cardinals could make at the Winter Meetings

While St. Louis Cardinals fans have gotten used to mostly quiet offseasons in recent years, Chaim Bloom is ready to shake things up for one of Major League Baseball's most iconic organizations. And unfortunately, it's likely to be painful for many fans.

While the hope is that the club can become an aggressive buyer in future seasons, with how deep a hole John Mozelik dug for the Cardinals in the final leg of his tenure running the club, Bloom is forced to make tough decisions this winter.

That will likely lead to a very painful trade occuring soon, and it may even go down at next week's Winter Meetings.

The Cardinals trading Brendan Donovan would be the most painful move they could make at the Winter Meetings

While the Cardinals are now likely to get a haul in return for their 2025 All-Star, trading Brendan Donovan would be a painful experience, and one that feels increasingly likely as the offseason has gone on.

The Cardinals have not been shy about taking calls on Donovan, and with over two-thirds of the league interested in acquiring him, it is safe to say that the demand is very high, likely leading to the kind of offer that makes sense to part ways with the fan favorite. The Cardinals are reportedly holding to that high asking price, so if teams don't meet that, they are not afraid to hold onto Donovan. But my guess is that a team is going to get head over heels about the idea of adding Donovan, and because of that, they'll pay the price knowing he can swing their chances of winning a World Series.

Because Donovan is that caliber of player, it makes it hard to imagine trading him away from St. Louis. The Cardinals, historically, are not the team that has to trade away top talent in order to rebuild. They are supposed to be the club that is able to add a player like Donovan when he becomes available in a trade. But the club has fallen so far behind that every option must be on the table. While I'd love for them to extend Donovan, it sounds like a trade is inevitable.

What makes this even more painful is that not only does Donovan post incredible numbers on the field, but he also plays the game the way Cardinals fans love to see. Grit, passion, does the little things, and is the ultimate team player. His leadership has been contagious in the Cardinals' clubhouse, and it's hard to imagine Donovan bringing that to a club other than the Cardinals.

But alas, here we are. So, as you keep tabs with our website and other MLB outlets over the coming week, expect to hear Donovan's name come up quite a bit, and a trade will likely go down at some point. While names like Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado, Lars Nootbaar, JoJo Romero, and Nolan Gorman could be on the move as well, none of them would be as painful a deal as trading away Donovan.

Luckily for Cardinals fans, that should mean a big return is coming back to St. Louis.