Brendan Donovan Breaks Silences on Cardinals-Mariners Trade

The St. Louis Cardinals were not messing around this offseason when it came to the trade market, to say the least.

St. Louis fully turned into the idea of a rebuild and responded by trading Brendan Donovan, Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray. The last — and biggest deal — of the offseason to this point was the three-team swap around Donovan with the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays. In the deal, the Cardinals traded an All-Star utility man and in the process, got three prospects and two draft picks in return.

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It took months, but the Cardinals got the deal over the finish line. Now, Spring Training camps have started opening up around the league. On Wednesday, Donovan spoke to the media as a member of the Mariners and opened up about his reaction to the deal that sent him out of the only organization he had called home.

The former Cardinals All-Star opened up

Sep 23, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan (33) runs to third base against the San Francisco Giants during the first inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images | Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

"It was my first time ever being traded, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought it went smooth," Donovan said. "I knew when I got the call from [Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto], I was like, 'OK, this is a real thing.' And immediately, after talking to my family, we're just excited. You know, obviously you see the history of this, this organization, and kind of what the team did last year, and then, and then immediately after just the welcoming fact of just guys were just so welcoming to my family and I, and to me, that that's very important. So like I said, very excited, the excitement in the building. Just like, just seems like an overall, just great group of people."

It was the offseason of Donovan with rumors swirling left and right starting pretty much the second the 2025 season ended for the organization. Donovan opened up about the loud rumors as well.

"You know, the cool thing about rumors is, is they're just rumors? So we, we do a pretty good job of trying to stay out of the, you know, the rumors in the limelight of the offseason. You know, offseason for me is kind of just like hanging out with my family, training. So I knew as a possibility, but, but I wasn't really sure, you know, I was having some communication from the Cardinals, but there wasn't a whole lot there.

"It was kind of like around ... the GM meetings and the Winter Meetings was like, when we kind of got flooded by a bunch of stuff, and we weren't sure what to expect, but I also knew that I had been linked to Seattle for a few years now, so I was kind of thinking in my head ... if something were to go through, I feel like it would be the team that's kind of been linked for a few years, so obviously, very excited that it went through."

The Cardinals certainly are going to look different in 2026, to say the least.

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