SF Giants can put the cherry on top of their offseason with one final move

The SF Giants have addressed their deficiency in the outfield by signing Harrison Bader. Now, they can put a cherry on top of a fairly frugal offseason by trading for St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan.

According to Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic, the Giants, "remain engaged with the Cardinals on Brendan Donovan, whose left-handed contact skills could balance out the lineup as an everyday second baseman."

SF Giants can cap off respectable offseason by trading for Brendan Donovan

San Francisco's attempt to swing a trade with the Washington Nationals for CJ Abrams fell through, but Donovan would still be a solid upgrade at second base which is really the one spot left in the lineup the Giants can realistically improve upon.

The Giants have been connected to Donovan for a while now and even though negotiations between the Giants and the Cardinals slowed down it seems they are still making a push.

When Jeff Passan of ESPN sent out that tweet a few weeks ago reporting that the Giants were "aggressively pursuing" a second baseman and named Nico Hoerner of the Cubs and Donovan as two targets, Donovan was always the more likely one to land.

The Cubs are looking to contend in 2026 and even though Hoerner would be a perfect fit with the Giants, the Cubs would not give him up unless they were completely blown away by an offer.

The Cardinals are rebuilding and looking for young prospects. The Giants currently have a surplus of young shortstops in their farm system who they should be willing to trade in exchange for Donovan who was an All-Star last season.

Adding Donovan would give the Giants a really strong lineup with not a lot of obvious holes. Sure, there would still be a lot of swing and miss in the lineup but Donovan is a contact hitter who hits for average so he would balance that out a little bit.

If the Giants did add Donovan, they could feel pretty good about their offseason. They addressed the holes in their rotation, added some intriguing bullpen arms, got better defensively in the outfield, and would upgrade at second base by landing Donovan.

It would not have been the super-aggressive dream offseason that most fans would have wanted, but it would have addressed pretty much all the team's needs when it was clear that ownership was not in the mood to spend a ton of money.

The Bader signing was smart, but trading for Donovan would put a cherry on top of a sensible offseason given the circumstances.