Picture this if you will: A second baseman with doubles power, but not a lot of home-run power. You don’t mind the lack of homers, though, because he offers a solid batting average, low strikeout rate and strong defense. He’s a prototypical No. 2 hitter for a team that’s always looking for a little more variety in its offensive attack.
Can you picture it? Of course you can. That’s a description of the various second basemen the Giants have used to win championships. Freddy Sanchez was the original model, followed by Marco Scutaro and Joe Panik. When the Giants get one of these guys, they tend to break October baseball. And apparently they take turns in the role, like the various Doctors Who or Green Lanterns.
If that doesn’t get you excited about the rumors linking Brendan Donovan to the Giants, then nothing will. The Athletic’s Katie Woo is reporting that the Giants and Mariners are front-runners in the Donovan trade chase, and that the discussions are advanced enough that specific prospects have been bandied about (2025 first-round pick Gavin Kilen, left-hander Carson Whisenhunt).
Well, hot dang, we have ourselves an actual rumor. Let’s dive in.
Why the Giants would want Brendan Donovan
Besides the part where he pulls the glowing infielder’s mitt out of the Second Baseman Stone and leads the Giants to a fourth championship? They’d want him because he’s good at baseball. He’s good at hitting it, he’s good at catching it. He’s good at controlling the strike zone and good at squaring the ball up.
That’s the only adjective you can use with Donovan. He’s better than solid. He’s definitely not great. He’s not mysterious or mercurial, electric or transcendental. He’s good. “Good ballplayer,” you might say with a cheek stuffed with sunflower seeds. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether you spit after you say it, but it really does drive the point home.
Brendan Donovan isn’t a superstar but he’s a solid player in all aspects of the game. (Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
Donovan is also one of the most consistent players in baseball, with an OPS between .759 and .787 in each of his four seasons. He’s hit 11, 14 and 10 home runs in each of the last three seasons, respectively, with an OPS+ of 114, 114 and 119. He posts, as the kids say. He posts every single season, in roughly the same way.
He’s versatile, too, playing the majority of his games at second but also appearing in 186 career games in the outfield, 46 at third base and 30 at first, which would allow the Giants to get creative in the event of an injury or unexpected development. It also allows them to be more flexible with giving days off to the veterans.
The best part about Donovan, though, is that he wouldn’t be a rental. He’s arbitration-eligible through the 2027 season. If there’s a 2027 season. Apparently it’s not as exciting to have two years of team control these days, but if there’s a season, Donovan will probably do good baseball things in that one too.
MLB Trade Rumors projects Donovan’s salary to be around $5.4 million in 2026, which shouldn’t derail any plans the Giants have to sign a starting pitcher you’ve heard of. If this all seems too good to be true, there’s a whole ‘nother section to go, but it’s a pretty easy fit to imagine. If the organizational plan is still get ‘em on, get ‘em over and get ‘em in — and it always should be — Donovan helps quite a bit. It would be fun to see him do it with Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Rafael Devers behind him in some order.
Why the Giants wouldn’t want Donovan
While it’s unlikely that the price for his services would require either Bryce Eldridge or Josuar Gonzalez, it would still be quite high. It would be a shame for the Giants to trade their 2025 first-round pick so soon, especially when you think about Kilen’s upside. He could be anything. Why, he could even be Brendan Donovan one of these days.
Let’s assume that the Giants are OK with a moderate blow to the farm system, though, especially now that they have the No. 4 pick this July. If there’s one wart with Donovan’s game that’s hard to get over, it’s that he definitely needs to be kept away from left-handed pitching. His OPS against southpaws over the last three seasons:
2025 — .614
2024 — .671
2023 — .570
He had a .749 OPS against lefties in 61 at-bats in 2022, so it hasn’t always been bad news. But Donovan would certainly appear to be a platoon player in the strictest sense. And this complicates matters.
In one respect, the Giants are prepared. A Donovan trade wouldn’t block Casey Schmitt so much as it would set Schmitt up for success. He’d get plenty of looks against left-handed pitching, and it would be a tandem with some offensive potential.
That doesn’t change the simple fact that a hitter with extreme platoon splits can be tricky to navigate. You’ve all watched games where the Giants went for a middle-innings platoon advantage with runners on base, only to maneuver their way into a situation where poor Mike Yastrzemski had to hit against a filthy left-handed closer. The Giants can prepare to protect Donovan against lefties, but he’ll still have to face them occasionally, and they probably won’t be fun at-bats to watch.
Donovan also missed about a month last season with a nagging groin injury, which is better than a henpecking groin injury. It’s definitely better than a berating groin injury, and it’s probably nothing to worry about with a 29-year-old player. Still, it’s worth a mention with Schmitt coming off wrist surgery.
Verdict
Hmm. This is much easier to do with free agents, where I can rubber stamp all sorts of wild contracts for many millions. With a Donovan trade, there are prospects going the other way, possibly a lot of them. There’s no way to advocate for a trade without knowing what it will take.
So let’s leave it at this: Yes, the Giants should be interested. Quite interested. Donovan would be one more above-average hitter in a lineup that has a chance to feature several of them. As far as realistic upgrades go, Donovan is one of the most obvious solutions available.
There is some bad news, however. It would appear that the Mariners have a robust farm system. Baseball America gave them eight prospects in the top-100 of their midseason rankings, with a roughly even split between position players and pitchers. They even have a switch-pitcher if the Cardinals want one. Everyone wants a switch-pitcher.
If you’re a Giants fan, then, you might want to root for the Mariners to make progress in their talks with the Diamondbacks to acquire Ketel Marte. That would get an All-Star out of the division, and it might make the Giants’ final offer for Donovan more appealing. Because he can help. He’s a good ballplayer, as they say, and the Giants could always use more of those.