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Mar 07, 2024

Former Enterprise star Brendan Donovan to miss rest of season with Cardinals after surgery

St. Louis Cardinals' Brendan Donovan races in scores on a wild pitch by Arizona Diamondbacks Zac Gallen during the third inning of a July 26 game in Phoenix. The Enterprise native had surgery

St. Louis Cardinals' Brendan Donovan races in scores on a wild pitch by Arizona Diamondbacks Zac Gallen during the third inning of a July 26 game in Phoenix. The Enterprise native had surgery Wednesday for a left elbow strain and will miss the rest of the season.

The 2023 Major League Baseball season is over for former Enterprise standout and current St. Louis Cardinals’ star Brendan Donovan, who had season-ending surgery to repair a left elbow strain on Wednesday, announced the Cardinals.

Donovan, a Gold Glove winner last year, is expected to be fully healthy in time for spring training before the 2024 season. The injury, which is to his throwing arm, is not a Tommy John surgery, said the Cardinals.

The 2015 Enterprise graduate had been limited to at-bats only as a designated hitter since July 5. According to the St. Louis Dispatch, he was placed on a throwing program after experiencing discomfort in his right arm but had it paused because of persistent irritation. He held off on having surgery with hopes the Cardinals could turn their season around before they became sellers at the trade deadline.

However, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said Tuesday it became obvious having surgery was the best course of action.

“It wasn’t getting better regardless of how much downtime we gave (it),” Marmol said of Donovan’s injury. “The throwing program didn’t go well, so at the end of the day, it made the most sense to not continue to drag it along and potentially run into spring training.”

A year ago, the 26-year-old Donovan delivered some strong offensive numbers in his first season in the big leagues after being called up in late April. However, he was more known for his versatility on defense, playing all four infield spots and both outfield corner positions. In addition to his Gold Glove, he finished third in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.

He finished last year with a .281 batting average, a .394 on-base percentage, five homers, 45 runs batted in and 64 runs scored over 126 games, usually batting in the lead-off spot.

The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Donovan developed some power numbers this year, earning 11 homers over 95 games. He will also finish with a .281 batting average – same as he did last year – plus a .362 on-base percentage, 34 runs batted in and 48 runs scored.

Since being limited to only at-bats in early July, Donovan, over 19 games, batted .271 to go with a .746 OPS in 77 plate appearances. In the stretch, he had three doubles, two home runs, and eight RBI.

This season, Donovan had appeared in 34 games at second base, 21 in left field, 18 at designated hitter, 14 at first base, nine in right field, six at third base and one at shortstop.

“This is what I love about Donovan is he could have done this two, three weeks ago,” Marmol said in the Dispatch story. “And he refused to get it done until we got to this point. And he just wanted to push as long as possible. But then you were going to have to make the decision of losing a portion of next year. It makes sense to get it done now, but he was going to have to get it done at some point.”

Donovan was selected in in the seventh round of the 2018 draft by the Cardinals out of the University of South Alabama and reached the major leagues in less than four years.

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