It’s not tough to see what went right for the Cardinals last year, if only because of how isolated the examples are. But cases like Donovan illustrate why St. Louis will be retooling rather than rebuilding in the seasons ahead. The 26-year-old made it into 95 games before being shut down to undergo surgery on his sore throwing arm, and in 238 PA out of the leadoff spot he hit .300, seventh among NL hitters who hit in that slot at least 90 times. But that many qualifiers are unnecessary to perceive Donovan’s effectiveness in the outfield, where he could be comfortably placed in either corner and perform passably at worst (He also made at least one appearance at each infield position). His versatility makes him valuable to St. Louis and renders him even more tradeable as they sort out what’s next.

“Well here he is,” BP’s prospect scribes wrote in the Cardinals’ Top 10 list last spring, “your 24-year-old, seventh-round college bat that is going to outplay this ranking.” Indeed, Donovan was designated the 10th-best farmhand in this organization by our team, and when accounting for something known in high academia as “general Cardinals bullshit,” that gives him a better outlook than the average team's no. 3 prospect.

Donovan was all over the place as a rookie, in the literal sense. He recorded at least 16 games at six different positions, including DH, and seven more at shortstop. Across a pile of tiny samples, he performed better on the left side of the field than the right side—a surprise given his just-okay arm—but his bat played well everywhere. Thanks to a keen eye and a 92nd percentile whiff rate, he was able to cruise to a well-above-average offensive season despite his lack of power. His rookie year WARP probably isn’t far off from his ceiling, but his consistency and versatility will make it difficult for some of the organization’s flashier prospects to push him out of the lineup.

The German-born Donovan was drafted out of a small D1 school in the seventh round of the 2018 draft. He's neither particularly large nor explosive, but he makes a lot of contact, can play all over the diamond and is a sneaky-quick runner. On paper, it's an up-and-down skillset but the Cardinals have traditionally gotten more out of this type of player than pretty much any other organization. With both contact hitting and positional flexibility in vogue these days, Donovan is a modern player coming into his own at the perfect time. After making the taxi squad for the Wild Card game loss last season, he should spend plenty of time on the field in 2022.