Redbird Droppings: Cardinal Rumors 11/14/2025

Redbird Droppings brings you this week’s rumors

The Cardinals haven’t been shy about their off-season plans; they are rebuilding and will listen on almost any player. Here are the names that have popped up in the last week or so.

I’m breaking this into 2 tiers. The first tier are players that will be shopped and more likely to be traded; the second tier are players that the Cardinals will listen on, but are less likely to be traded.

Here’s the first tier:

Brendan Donovan
Interested Teams: Blue Jays, Diamondbacks, Giants, Guardians, Mariners, Royals
Formerly Interested Teams: Dodgers, Yankees

Donovan is one of the hottest names within the Cardinals and in baseball. Derrick Goold has reported that the Guardians and Royals are currently interested. Donovan’s name was floated at the deadline, and most of the league was interested. The Dodgers and Yankees could still be interested here.

The Cardinals may not be in a rush to trade Donovan, but his value might be the highest that it’ll get; he’s got 2 years of club control remaining, he’s affordable on a projected $5.4M salary, and is coming off an all star appearance. He’ll also fetch more than just about anyone on the roster.

He also makes sense to move because it’ll clear a spot for JJ Wetherholt; I’m expecting the team to slot Wetherholt into second base (even though I think third would make more sense) and Thomas Saggese turns into the “Donovan Supersub” who bounces around the roster.

There will be a segment of the fan-base that will be upset if Donovan is traded; he’s one of the better players on the team. But that’s the problem. Donovan is a supplemental player; he’s the farm system guy that we used to plug in around an Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, or Carlos Beltran. He’s good, but he’s not a game changer.

Sonny Gray
Interested Teams: Braves, Mets, Orioles
Formerly Interested Teams: Unknown, he would not waive his no trade clause.

Gray wants to end this contract on a contender, so the team is going to entertain offers. And they’ll get offers. The question is what kind of offers for his salary. He’s on the last year of his 3 year, $75M contract ($35M due this season, with a $5M buyout on a club option worth $30M) and his 2025 numbers don’t justify that amount of money (per Fangraphs, his 2025 was worth $28.5M).

I’ve always maintained that Gray wasn’t an ace; he’s a very good #2 pitcher that got an ace deal (and press) coming off the best year of his career. Look for the Cardinals to have to eat some money to get something back; at least $10M, which is a hit they can take to add talent to the system.

The Braves make sense because they need reliable pitching; they didn’t have many pitchers make it through the full season and Gray is normally reliable every 5th day.

The Mets and Orioles are looking for pitching upgrades as well and want to add front-end starters. One writer even proposed Mets trade featuring Gray and cash for Kodai Senga; it makes sense on paper, but I don’t know if the Cards are interested in adding a 32-year-old pitcher making $15M/yr over the next 2 seasons.

Nolan Arenado
Interested Teams: Unspecified
Formerly Interested Teams: Astros, Red Sox, Yankees

Arenado is really ready to go, so don’t expect him to block a trade to a decent team this year. He’s a big blocker for building the next team; while his defense is still very good, his bat has really fallen off. Both Wetherholt and/or Saggese could take over the corner next season and both would provide an offensive upgrade.

To get a deal done, the Cardinals will have to eat much of his remaining salary. No word yet on who is interested, but there will be teams. He’s not going to bring back as much as Donovan or Gray, but the more the Cardinals are willing to eat, the more they’ll get back.

Lars Nootbaar
Interested Teams: Rangers
Formerly Interested Teams: Unspecified

Nootbaar is in the Donovan camp of a good player that’s a complementary player and one that some of the fan-base will want to hang onto. He’s also very affordable (a projected $5.7M salary) and has 2 years of control remaining. Add in his statcast numbers, and there should be plenty of interest.

The Rangers have some interest, but it might have cooled off after the Cardinals announced that Noot underwent surgery on both heels. I think teams might wait until after the New Year to see where he is in his rehab before making an offer.

Those heel issues are part of a bigger problem; Noot can’t stay on the field. He’s injury prone; his 135 games in 2025 was the highest of his career. Because of these injury issues, he’s never really able to find a groove and be productive for a full season.

Willson Contreras
Interested Teams: Red Sox
Formerly Interested Teams: None, was not willing to waive no trade clause

Contreras is another player with a no trade clause that didn’t want to move before last season, but has backed off that stance as the rebuild begins. He’s successfully transitioned to first base without seeing a drop in his value; while his bat was elite at catcher, he’s still a very good hitting first baseman. He’s owed $41.5M over the next 2 years (including a $5M buyout for his 2028 $17.5M club option).

The Red Sox are looking for an upgrade at first and can afford to take on most of, if not all of, his salary. The teams matched up at the deadline (Steven Matz for Blaze Jordan) and Chaim Bloom is very familiar with their system; he could have some hidden gems that he drafted while he was there.

I think he might be one of the less likely to be dealt until the perfect deal comes in. That said, he’s got 2 years guaranteed left and it seems like they are planning to be competitive in 3; it’s the reason they are seriously listening on Donovan and Nootbaar.

This is the second tier players:

Nolan Gorman
Interested Teams: Diamondbacks
Formerly Interested Teams: Unspecified

Gorman’s name has popped up every year in trade rumors, but it always appears the team is not really interested in dealing him yet. I think that’s still the case. He took some steps forward under new hitting coach Brant Brown and I expect that he’ll keep working to be an everyday player. If he’s in the field, they should stick with him at second base; the time he filled in at third was a disaster.

The only way the Cardinals trade him is if they get a generous package, including some MLB ready players, one of which is a pitcher.

Alec Burleson
Interested Teams: Unspecified
Formerly Interested Teams: Unspecified

If Gorman is a long shot to be dealt, Burleson is even further away from moving. I believe the team considers him one of the building blocks going forward. He’s gotten better each season and I believe he’s going to be starting almost every day next season; it’s just where at. He’ll be the primary first baseman if Contreras is dealt; he’ll be left field if Contreras is their on opening day.

If a team were to over-pay for Burleson, then the team would probably move him. At this point, he’s as near untouchable as anyone on this roster.

Jordan Walker
Interested Teams: Unspecified
Formerly Interested Teams: Unspecified

I don’t think the team is moving Walker either, because that’s a sell low situation and the team still holds an option on Walker. If I’m Bloom, I’m sending Walker to a Driveline like facility to work on pitch recognition and reworking his swing to maximize his natural power; I know they’ve worked on this in the past, but if they were to sit him down and say “work on this as we instruct or you’ll be back in Memphis working this out”, I think he’ll come around.

They’ll get nickels on the dollar right now for Walker, so why not see what he can attempt to do one more time.

Catching Depth: Pedro Pages, Yohel Pozo, Jimmy Crooks
Interested Teams: Unspecified
Formerly Interested Teams: Unspecified

The large contingent of Cardinals catchers is getting some attention; it’s being reported that teams are asking about the team’s catching depth.

The Cardinals do not want to trade Ivan Herrera and believe he’ll be back behind the dish next season. That leaves 3 other catchers on the 40-man, and 2 more that are borderline top 100 prospects. They need to do something with this depth before it stagnates and they have nothing (like all of the catching prospects that were blocked by Yadier Molina).

Herrera is a star bat in the making and if he sticks at catcher, it’s all the better; if his arm isn’t healed and he can’t stop the running game, he should move to first base (and move Burleson to left for good).

I have 2 suggestions here: if Herrera can catch, keep Pozo; if not, keep Crooks and Pozo. Pozo is a solid hitting backup and the pitching staff appears to like him. Crooks should be an every day catcher, so he’d be the first in line with Pozo behind him.

That leaves Pages as the odd man out. He’s got value on the market; he’s very popular with the pitching staff and his bat gets hot at times, including the occasional clutch hit. He won’t bring much back, but it’s better to get a lottery ticket (hello Matt Svanson) than nothing at all.

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There are a few quick hit names that keep popping up as additions for the team:

• People are quick to add Ryan Helsley back to the bullpen, and he’s apparently open to coming back. His value is low right now after his horrendous stint with the Mets after he was traded there at the deadline. Adding him back on a 1-year deal to reestablish his value is very possible, but I think a team would take a shot for 2-3 years on him.
• The team also dealt Phil Maton at the deadline, and he’s another name that could make the rumor circuit for the team.
• Pete Fairbanks, former closer for the Rays, has hit the market too. His name will pop up because he’s from the St. Louis area. If he’s cheap and short-term, I think it’s possible.
• And there is a far-fetch, but not unrealistic name that we’ll be hearing a lot of: Max Scherzer. Far fetched because he’ll want to play for a contender; not unrealistic because there has a been a little mutual interest in the past between the 2 sides. Since he’s at the end of his career and does have a World Series ring, it’s possible. The biggest concern is Scherzer is not reliable to take the mound every 5th day and the Cardinals need some reliable depth in the rotation.

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I’m going to keep doing the rumor mill every Friday and I’m in the process of analyzing John Mozeliak’s tenure as GM/POBO, which might be a week-long feature when it’s completed. Then I’ll also be throwing random Cardinals stuff out as I get time to write. It’s been hard to do over the last 2 seasons, but I feel revitalized with the changes that have started.

Until then, I’ll see you next Friday.