When it comes to staring contests, Chaim Bloom must be one of the best in the game, and when it comes to Brendan Donovan, it appears to be working out masterfully in the St. Louis Cardinals’ favor.

All offseason, reports around the Cardinals have maintained that while they want to cash in on Donovan’s trade value this offseason, they know how great a player he is, and with two years of club control remaining, they have a high asking price for him.

Now, teams often say stuff like that, but when the rubber actually meets the road, they tend to come off their initial asking prices. Not this time.

MLB insider Jeff Passan was asked if Donovan’s price had come down over on Threads recently, and he was very adamant that Chaim Bloom was holding the line, wanting to get an excellent package in return, or they will hold onto Donovan. Here is the full quote from Passan:

“Nope. And it’s not going to.” Passan said when asked if Donovan’s trade price had come down. “The Cardinals do not need to trade Brendan Donovan. They can move him at the deadline. They can move him next winter. His consistency is among his best attributes, and his value is unlikely to crater between now and then. So Chaim Bloom should do exactly what he’s doing: set an extremely high asking price and know that teams valuing flexibility will continue wanting him.”

Jeff Passan, ESPN MLB Insider

The Cardinals are holding to their high asking price for Brendan Donovan as the trade market continues to move in their favor.

Passan hit the nail on the head here. Despite what some people are saying, the Cardinals do not have to trade Donovan. If they are going to, obviously, now would be the ideal time, but Donovan represents their absolute best trade piece, and he provides the kind of value that is worth holding a high price for.

With the Arizona Diamondbacks general manager coming out and saying they are unlikely to move Ketel Marte in a trade now, the Cardinals’ leverage in trade talks should only be going up from here, and teams knowing that Bloom won’t budge on his asking price should increase urgency. With teams like the Red Sox, Mariners, Giants, Royals, Yankees, Guardians, and Astros all expressing strong levels of interest at various points, Bloom knows his odds of getting someone else to blink first are higher than some fans are giving him credit for.

The Cardinals already have one of the top farm systems in the game. Yes, adding more talent to it would be great, but as Passan said, Donovan’s value is unlikely to crater. Even with his cost-control dwindling once the season starts, many believe Donovan still has even more room to produce offensively, and if he puts that together over the course of the first half or a full season, that will likely mitigate the “value loss” of cost-control or could even make him more valuable as a trade asset. And even if he loses a bit of trade value, the Cardinals still should be able to get a good return in the future.

You’ve got to know when to hold them and when to fold them. In the past, the Cardinals have been criticized for holding onto players too long, and a common critique of Bloom has been that he gets a bit gun-shy to pull the trigger on trades. That is not what is happening here. The Cardinals know the kind of player they have in Donovan, they know the market is playing in their favor, and they know they hold all of the leverage. The Cardinals should expect a massive return for Donovan, and if they don’t get that, they are more than happy to hold onto him for the foreseeable future.