Former Blue Jays' down year may have inflated the price to acquire Brendan Donovan

It was a deal that doesn't help the Toronto Blue Jays in anyway. Earlier this week, the Seattle Mariners picked up a super utility player in Brendan Donovan. Maybe less emphasis on utility and more emphasis on super, because Donovan can play just about everywhere he's needed and produce at an above average rate.

The Mariners, who were the last team standing in the American League alongside the Blue Jays, got a guy who could have been a useful replacement for the Blue Jays as they lost Bo Bichette to free agency. But in a round-about way, Bo's one year of injury and underperformance, may have driven the asking price a little to high for Toronto's liking.

Former Blue Jays' down year may have inflated the price to acquire Brendan Donovan

Donovan has, up until now, played his entire career with the St. Louis Cardinals, who are in the middle of rebuilding their squad. They moved some assets at last years trade deadline and the sell-off continued this winter with big names like Sonny Gray, Nolan Arrenado, Willson Contreras and now Donovan heading for greener pastures.

The Mariners had to give up 24-year-old infielder Ben Williamson (a former second round pick) to the Tampa Bay Rays as well as prospects Jurrangelo Cijntje, Tai Peete and a competitive balance round B pick (#68 overall) to the Cardinals. The Cardinals also got outfield prospect Colton Ledbetter and another competitive balance round B pick (#72 overall) from the Rays.

For the Mariners who went to Game 7 of the ALCS against the Blue Jays, it may feel like a heavy price, but it's the price teams have to pay when they feel like they are so close to a World Series title, and Donovon certainly raises those expectations even further. However, they may have given up just a touch more than they needed to, especially if the Cardinals set their asking price based on the comparisons that ESPN reporter Jeff Passan was using.

Following the trade Passan sent out a tweet that looked at Donovan and Bichette's recent seasons and noted how comparable the two players are over the last three seasons. He pointed out that Donovan has slashed .282/.351/.420 with a 117 wRC+ and 7.5 fWAR in 366 games, while Bichette has slashed .291/.333/.445 with a wRC+ of 116 and an 8.0 fWAR.

He came to the conclusion that maybe Donovan was under appreciated or even undervalued in comparison to Bichette who just landed a three-year $126 million deal from the New York Mets in his first foray into the free agent market after spending his first seven big league seasons with the Blue Jays. The issue some fans had with that comparison though is that Bichette had an awful and uncharacteristic 2024 campaign.

That year, Bichette was held to 81 games and compiled his worst season in the big leagues with a slash line of .255/.277/.322 with an OPS of .598. He hit just four home runs and his BABIP was down to .269 from .355 the year prior in which he was an AL All-Star. Meantime, Donovan was also held to under 100 games, but had a much more productive 95 game season in 2023.

Donovan slashed .284/.365/.422 with 11 home runs and a strikeout rate of 14.3 with a .311 BABIP that year and in 2024 he had another really good season, producing a 2.6 bWAR in 153 games. But Bichette, when playing a full healthy season, has never had a bWAR of less than 3.5 (excluding the COVID shortened 2020 season).

So while both players are very good in their own right, it's tough to try and justify their values side by side in terms of weighing each deal. Are the Mariners happy with getting Donovan on their team that already includes some start studded players like Cal Raleigh, Josh Naylor and Julio Rodriguez? Absolutely they should be.

Are the Mets eccstatic that Bichette joined them and all it cost them was $42 million a year to have him hitting in front of Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor? Absolutely they should be, they've got the cash, so why not throw it around? The point is if the Cardinals entered negotiations with the starting point that Donovan is just as good as Bo, they may have squeezed a bit more out of the deal from the Mariners and you have to tip your cap to them for taking that approach.