The Brendan Donovan deal is finally complete on paper, and the Cardinals used the draft to put the finishing touches on it.
St. Louis selected outfielder Andrew Williamson and right-hander Dawson Montesa with the 68th and 72nd overall picks in the MLB Draft, locking in the two Competitive Balance selections that were part of the winter trade that sent Donovan to the Seattle Mariners. Those picks were a major piece of the return from the three-team swap, and now they’re officially in the Cardinals’ hands.
Williamson brings the loudest bat in the group. The University of Central Florida outfielder was Baseball America’s 48th-ranked prospect entering the draft, and the appeal is obvious: big-time power.
The left-handed hitter turned 21 today, hit a career-high 16 home runs in his junior season, and walked 17.7% of the time. He’s the kind of player who makes a lineup feel different the moment he steps in.
Montesa, who pitched at West Virginia University, offers a different kind of upside. He’s 20 and comes with a fastball that lives in the mid-90s and has touched 98 MPH.
His changeup could become a real weapon behind it, while both his curveball and slider project as above-average pitches. He’s unusually young for a college arm in this class, and his athleticism gives the Cardinals another developmental project with plenty of room to grow in their pitching system.
Those two draftees join the other prospects St. Louis already picked up in the Donovan trade: switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje, outfielder Tai Peete, and outfielder Colton Ledbetter.
Cijntje has had a mixed season with the Cardinals’ Double-A affiliate, putting up a 5.04 ERA in 17 starts while striking out 100 batters in 80.1 innings. Even so, the ceiling remains obvious.
He just turned in two of his better outings of the year, allowing three hits and striking out nine over six innings on the Fourth of July, then following that with eight strikeouts and two runs allowed in six innings on July 10. He remains one of the organization’s top pitching prospects.
Peete has shown his talent when healthy, but injuries have slowed him down. In 30 games for High-A Peoria, he’s hitting .273/.350/.523 with five home runs, 24 RBI and five stolen bases. The problem is availability: he’s back on the injured list after already missing more than a month between late May and early June.
Ledbetter, 24, is at Memphis and has held his own in his first run at Triple-A, batting .244/.313/.393 with seven home runs and 30 RBI. The Rays took him in the second round in 2023, and he can handle all three outfield spots, though he probably fits best in a corner. He may not carry the same ceiling as some of the other names in the deal, but he’s still a useful addition.
So now the Donovan trade has its full shape: Cijntje, Peete, Ledbetter, Williamson and Montesa. The Cardinals have added a mix of power, arms and upside, and the return is now fully finalized.
In Other News...
Patrick And Brittany Mahomes Just Sparked Fresh Buzz At Chiefs Wedding
The offseason has a way of turning a simple appearance into a talking point, and Patrick Mahomes and Brittany Mahomes found themselves right in the middle of one after attending JuJu Smith-Schuster and Laura Kruks wedding at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, California. The gathering had plenty of Chiefs flavor to it, with several current and former Kansas City players in attendance, along with Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, making it the kind of event that naturally drew extra attention beyond the ceremony itself.
Brittany Mahomes later shared photos from the celebration on Instagram, and those images quickly picked up steam on social media. For a team that is used to having even its social moments scrutinized, a high-profile wedding full of familiar faces was always going to travel fast, especially with the Chiefs star quarterback and his wife at the center of it. [Read more 🡒]
Chiefs Just Made One Move That Could Reset Their Offense
After a 6-11 season that sent the Chiefs to the offseason earlier than anyone around the franchise expected, the front office wasted little time trying to address the part of the offense that never found its footing. The running game was a glaring issue, and Kansas City answered by bringing in Kenneth Walker III on a three-year contract, a move that gives Patrick Mahomes a different kind of threat in the backfield and signals a clear desire to get the offense back to being more balanced.
The other part of that reset came on the sideline, where Eric Bieniemy returned to the Chiefs' coaching staff with the task of helping fix an attack that fell well short of its usual standard. Kansas City knows what this looked like when Bieniemy was running the offense before, and it also knows how far the unit slipped without that structure in place. The hope now is that the combination of a proven play-caller and a new back can restore some of the rhythm the Chiefs lost a year ago. [Read more 🡒]
Chiefs May Finally Have The Year 3 Weapon They Needed
Xavier Worthy has been one of the most encouraging names in the Chiefs offseason work, the kind of young player who can change the feel of a passing game if the growth keeps coming. The early signs have been especially notable because Worthy has looked increasingly in sync with Patrick Mahomes, a connection Kansas City has been eager to sharpen as it builds toward the 2026 season opener against the Broncos on Sept. 14.
For a team that has spent plenty of time searching for another reliable downfield threat, Worthys progress matters beyond the summer buzz. The Chiefs have reason to believe his role can expand if he stays on the field and keeps stacking those reps with Mahomes, and that makes his development one of the more important storylines in camp even before the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]