Cardinals Running Out Of Time Before Star Gets Too Expensive

The St. Louis Cardinals have a budding, young star on their hands.

There have been a lot of questions about the long-term plans of the organization. There's going to be a serious transition this upcoming offseason as Chaim Bloom replaces John Mozeliak as the Cardinals' president of baseball operations.

Who will Bloom keep around? Who will he bring to town? It's going to be a long few months with trade speculation as a new era is just months away from kicking off. One guy who is worth keeping around in the long term certainly is utility man Brendan Donovan. He can play all over the place, has a Gold Glove Award under his belt, and is having a breakout year offensively as well.

Donovan has appeared in 42 games so far this season and is slashing .313/.376/.448 with three homers, 20 RBIs, three stolen bases, 13 doubles, and 23 runs scored. He already has 1.7 wins above replacement and is on pace for the best year of his career so far at just 28 years old.

He's young and is arbitration-eligible for the next two season and isn't scheduled to be a free agent until 2028. While this is the case, it may be worth it locking Donovan up with an extension sooner rather than later. Right now, Spotrac has his market value projected over $122 million across six years.

There was speculation during the offseason that the club was interested in an extension. Nothing came to fruition, though. Donovan has been great on the field and has moved more into a leadership role with Paul Goldschmidt leaving the organization. He's a budding superstar and the club should find a way to keep him around for the long term without breaking the bank.