Yankees Could Target Cardinals' Infielder For Summer Trade

Will St. Louis be sellers come July?

Oct 12, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; View of a New York Yankees hat during workouts at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Shanna Lockwood-Imagn Images | Shanna Lockwood-Imagn Images

The St. Louis Cardinals have the hottest hitter in baseball in their lineup, but will he be playing for another club come July?

The Cards fell below .500 on Tuesday with a 2-0 loss to the Houston Astros despite a strong outing from Erick Fedde. St. Louis couldn’t get its offense going against Astros starter Hunter Brown.

Only two Cardinals registered extra-base hits: Brendan Donovan and Lars Nootbaar each tallied a double. Donovan now has an 11-game hit streak leading into Wednesday afternoon’s game. The 28-year-old infielder has been absolutely on fire at the plate to start 2025, slashing .382/.411/.559 entering Wednesday (second-highest batting average in Major League Baseball).

Donovan’s numbers at the plate during his 11-game hit streak have been absurd: .488/.511/.698 with seven extra-base hits and eight RBI.

There’s a reason Cardinals fans are calling for the franchise to extend Donovan, who is making $2.85 million this year with two years of arbitration to come (per Spotrac).

Donovan is grabbing the entire league’s attention right now. He’s known for excellent defense (Gold Glove in 2022), but the hitting this season will likely cause multiple, high-profile suitors to pester St. Louis this summer about Donovan’s availability.

If the Cards start to flounder between now and July, the Donovan sweepstakes might ramp up, and the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees figure to be first in line.

The Yanks have a gaping roster hole at third base, and Donovan — capable of playing all infield positions — could easily take over the position for New York.

Last week, Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller talked about the Yankees’ third base problem.

“The Yankees traded for Jazz Chisholm Jr. to address their third base situation last season ... but they moved him back to second base after losing Gleyber Torres to free agency and never did anything to address the resulting hole at the hot corner,” Miller wrote.

“Kind of seems like the plan here was to throw things at the wall for a few months, see if anything sticks and make a trade if nothing does.”

Nothing is sticking, and the Bronx Bombers will be shopping for a third baseman. They’re probably already monitoring Donovan as a top target and will be hoping for a Cardinals downfall in the coming weeks.

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