Donovan's road to first All-Star Game paved by relentless effort

ST. LOUIS -- The question-and-answer session mildly interrupted by whooshing sounds of balls being shot out of a machine affectionately nicknamed “The Red Rocket” and followed by the repeated popping of a glove, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol looked up from his desk and had one guess as to the source of the noise just outside of his office door.

“Donny,” Marmol said in a knowing way without even having to look out into the hallway that leads from the clubhouse to the dugout.

Heavy rain was pouring from the dark clouds above Busch Stadium, the tarp was pulled over the infield and batting practice was already an afterthought with it having been canceled. Still, there was work to be done and Brendan Donovan wasn’t about to cut corners on this rainy night in St. Louis. There was Donovan in that hallway -- some 3 1/2 hours before first pitch -- tirelessly fielding dozens of ground balls bouncing off the rubberized floor fed to him by coach Stubby Clapp.

“Getting it in,” cracked Donovan, referring to the work that needed to be put in that night -- rain or shine, on the infield or in a hallway.

Donovan’s path to his first MLB All-Star Game has been paved with hundreds of dedicated and determined moments such as the one in the hallway earlier this season.

He built what he calls “The Barn” -- a work building converted into a workout facility equipped with batting cages, video technology and a turf infield for more ground balls -- just outside his South Alabama home to make his winter work more efficient and effective. To try and rack up more extra-base hits, he’s studied the angles off the bat that most often lead to gap-splitting doubles and then he’s drilled in the cage for hours trying to hit balls at those precise angles.

Then, there’s the “Red Rocket,” a machine that has taught him better about the proper angles needed to become a much-improved second baseman. Clapp, the coach who handles the Cardinals' infield, fires him grounders during the season, while former college sweetheart and wife, Aly, runs the machine during the winter months.

Put it all together, and that sort of dedication to his craft has allowed Donovan, 28, to become the Cardinals' lone representative in the Midsummer Classic. The 213th overall pick in the 2018 Draft, Donovan is St. Louis’ first homegrown player drafted in the seventh round or later to appear in his first All-Star Game since former closer Trevor Rosenthal (21st round) in 2015.

“There’s a couple of points in your career -- hopefully I can play a long time -- that I can look back on and enjoy once I am done playing, but I wouldn’t want to do this any other way,” Donovan said, referring to his path to becoming an All-Star. “I think it makes it sweeter. This doesn’t change anything and I’m going to continue to be the person I am every day.”

The first rookie to win a Gold Glove Award in the rich history of the Cardinals in 2022, Donovan is now enjoying the best year of his four-year MLB career. He has been the most valuable player on a surprising Cards team, racking up 2.8 bWAR while playing three defensive positions and hitting third and leadoff in the batting order.

At .297, he is first in the National League in batting average, and his 22 doubles are tied for the sixth most in the NL. His 11 three-hit games are tied for the second most in the NL, while his three four-hit games are tied for first. As a product of that work that Donovan has done to hit precise angles, he ranks ninth in the NL in line-drive percentage at 29.4 percent.

“Everybody has bad games, but when he has a bad game, he’s working to try and figure it out harder than anybody I’ve seen,” said close friend and teammate Alec Burleson. “One thing I really enjoy about him is that no matter what he’s done in a game or over the past week, each at-bat is important to him. He treats every at-bat like its own separate entity regardless of if he is 3-for-3 or 4-for-4. It doesn’t matter the score, the inning or whatever the outcome is, he takes every at-bat like an entity, and that’s something I’ve learned from him.”

Marmol has learned to count on Donovan, saying: “When you talk about what he brings to the table, it’s [consistency]. He’s not going to give away at-bats, he’s not going to take a pitch off defensively and he’s going to lock in for every play. As a manager, that’s what you count on. He’s put together a really nice year.”