ST. LOUIS -- As much as the high-end potential of ambidextrous pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje excited the Cardinals, and as much as they were intrigued by the rare combinations of speed and power from outfielders Tai Peete and Colton Ledbetter, president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom knew he simply needed more before agreeing to any potential deal involving All-Star Brendan Donovan.
It wasn’t until the Cardinals and Mariners brought the Rays into the three-team mix and created a scenario in which both Seattle and Tampa Bay would sweeten the pot with Competitive Balance B picks in the 2026 MLB Draft for St. Louis that Bloom felt comfortable in trading a fan favorite and the club’s lone All-Star in 2025.
In dealing Donovan to Seattle, the Cardinals got back not only Cijntje, Peete and Ledbetter, but the Nos. 68 and 72 picks in July’s Draft. The Cardinals now have picks 13, 32, 50, 68, 72 and 86, through which they hope to fill their Minor League system with more prospects. Having six of the first 86 picks is similar to what Bloom went through with the Rays in 2011, when he had 12 of the first 89 and snagged two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.
Now he hopes to craft similar Draft magic for a Cards franchise in the beginning stages of a massive rebuild.
“They're obviously really important,” Bloom said of the Draft picks. “The deal would not have happened without their inclusion. Obviously, as I talked about all offseason, we wanted to set a bar pretty high if we were going to contemplate [trading Donovan]. As much as we are thinking long term, there still should be a pretty high bar when you have someone who's as valuable as Brendan, and the value of those shots in the top 100 picks of the Draft is real. Obviously, it's on us now to maximize them.”
In trading Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Donovan this winter, the Cardinals have stockpiled nine prospects and two Draft picks that they hope will lead them back to World Series contention. The Cards got hard-throwing lefty prospect Brandon Clarke (22 years old) and MLB-ready right-hander Richard Fitts (26) from the Red Sox in exchange for Gray, and they nabbed MLB-ready veteran Hunter Dobbins (26), electrifying right-hander Yhoiker Fajardo (19) and right-hander Blake Aita (22) for Contreras. After swapping Arenado for right-hander Jack Martinez (22), they landed the coveted Cijntje (22) and the promise of Peete (20) and Ledbetter (24).
Fitts and Dobbins are expected to battle for starting roles in Spring Training, while Cijntje (the No. 91 overall prospect in MLB per MLB Pipeline) gives the club six Top 100 prospects, along with JJ Wetherholt (No. 5), Liam Doyle (No. 34), Rainiel Rodriguez (No. 37), Joshua Baez (No. 87) and Leonardo Bernal (No. 98). Having six Top 100 prospects ties the Cards with the Mariners, Mets and Guardians for the most in MLB.
“Certainly, we feel like we’ve added significant talent and significant upside, and we know we’ll need it because there are no guarantees in that pool,” Bloom said. “We get 165 spots [system-wide]. We’d love to have an awesome prospect at every [position], and we’re going to keep working to try and make that happen.”
Cijntje pitching with both arms in an MLB game might never happen, because the Cardinals see his highest potential as a right-hander. The Curaçao native, who grew up as a natural lefty and learned to throw right-handed to emulate his father, Mechangelo, pitched with both arms in the 2016 Little League World Series, collegiately at Mississippi State and, occasionally, for Seattle’s High-A and Double-A teams in 2025, when he struck out 120 batters in 108 1/3 innings.
During an initial conversation with Cijntje, Bloom heard how the young pitcher likes staying sharp with both arms. There is a possibility that Cijntje could be used as a righty starter and a lefty reliever, but progress will decide his fate, Bloom said.
“I think we owe it to ourselves and to him to get to know him first, but when you look at stuff, command and upside, it’s not a shock [that the Mariners] were prioritizing his right side,” said Bloom, who noted that Matt Pierpont, the club’s director of pitching, worked with Cijntje in 2024 before joining the Cards. “Jurrangelo is passionate about keeping up the left side. [Seattle] had planned to keep the left side going, at least in bullpen settings, and that makes sense from a distance. But we need to have this guy with us and learn him.”