St. Louis Cardinals MLB Trade Rumors: Team Continues to Make a Push to Acquire Josh Donaldson
It sounds like the St. Louis Cardinals are really serious in their pursuit of Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson.
According to USA Today's Bob Nightengale, the Cardinals are aggressively pursuing Donaldson and they think they have a better chance of signing Josh Donaldson to a long-term extension than they do with Baltimore Orioles All-Star third baseman Manny Machado.
However, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Rick Hummel thinks acquiring Donaldson is too risky because he can leave for free agency after the 2018 season.
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Hummel also noted a source told him the Blue Jays want two major leaguers and a prospect for the three-time All-Star.
"The Cardinals have two starting third basemen in Matt Carpenter and Jedd Gyorko. They also have a spare outfielder in power hitter Randal Grichuk," Hummel said in his column.
"The Cardinals also have young starting pitching, but would they risk it for the possibility of only one year of Donaldson, who had 33 homers last season while missing nearly 50 games because of injury? Two or more prospects would seem to be something the Cardinals would not do with Toronto," he added.
The club has played Jedd Gyorko, Greg Garcia and Breyvic Valera at third base last season, but Donaldson is definitely an upgrade over anyone they have on the roster.
In 113 games for the Blue Jays last season, Donaldson posted a 0.270/0.385/0.559 slash line, and he also had 33 home runs, 78 runs batted in, and 21 doubles in 496 plate appearances. He won the American League (AL) most valuable player award during the 2015 season.
The Cardinals will have to really weigh the pros and cons of acquiring Donaldson. Are they willing to give up prospects who are under multiple years of team control for a year of Donaldson? Or will they find it too risky?
