The Brendan Donovan trade is finally complete on paper, and the St. Louis Cardinals used the draft to put the finishing touch on it.
After sending Donovan to the Seattle Mariners this winter, the Cardinals came away with a package that included two Competitive Balance Draft selections - one from Seattle and one from the Tampa Bay Rays in the three-team deal. Those picks turned into outfielder Andrew Williamson and right-hander Dawson Montesa, who went 68th and 72nd overall in the MLB Draft.
Williamson gives the Cardinals a bat with real pop. The University of Central Florida outfielder entered the draft ranked 48th by Baseball America, and his calling card is loud contact.
He launched a career-high 16 home runs in his junior season and drew walks at a 17.7% clip. The left-handed hitter turns 21 today.
Montesa brings a different kind of upside. The 20-year-old from West Virginia University works with a fastball that lives in the mid-90s and can touch 98 MPH.
His changeup could become a real weapon off that pitch, and both his curveball and slider project as above-average offerings. He’s also unusually young for a college pitcher in this draft class, and his athleticism gives the Cardinals another arm they can try to shape in their pitching development system.
Those two picks join the other pieces St. Louis already pulled in from the Donovan deal. The Cardinals also added switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje and outfielder Tai Peete from Seattle, plus outfielder Colton Ledbetter from Tampa Bay.
Cijntje has had a mixed season with the Cardinals’ Double-A affiliate, where he owns a 5.04 ERA in 17 starts. Even so, the strikeout stuff has been there in a big way: 100 punchouts in 80.1 innings.
He’s also coming off a strong stretch, allowing just 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 and still carries huge upside.
Peete has shown flashes whenever he’s been healthy, but injuries have kept interrupting his season. In 30 games for High-A Peoria, he’s hitting .273/.350/.523 with five homers, 24 RBI and five stolen bases. He’s back on the injured list after already missing more than a month from late May into early June.
Ledbetter, meanwhile, is getting his first run at Triple-A with Memphis and has put together a solid line of .244/.313/.393 with seven home runs and 30 RBI. The 24-year-old, a second-round pick by the Rays in 2023, can handle all three outfield spots, though he likely fits best in a corner. He may not carry the same ceiling as some of the other names in the deal, but he still gives the Cardinals a useful piece.
With Williamson and Montesa now in the fold, the Cardinals’ return for Donovan is officially locked in.
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