Every big league baseball team has questions heading into spring training, and here is one of the many the Cardinals must ponder:

Was scrappy Cardinals utility player Brendan Donovan a one-season offensive wonder? He got results while tenaciously working the count during his rookie season.

He projects to get lots of playing time at second base during the coming season, since the new no-shift rules will put more emphasis on fielding range and make it more difficult for Nolan Gorman to hold up defensively at that position.

And how many people really expect Paul DeJong to rediscover his long swing after his years-long slump?

But Donovan suffers from a glaring lack of power and he isn’t terribly fast either. Some of his metrics scream “regression” for 2023. Pitchers should approach him more aggressively while knowing his game plan: He takes lots of pitches while trying to drive up pitch counts and draw walks.

Writing for FanGraphs, Ben Clemens took a deep drive into Donovan’s surprisingly strong 2022 season, which produced a .281 batting average and .394 on-base percentage.

Here are some of the fun facts:

Clemens poured through all of that that and still found hope that Donovan has lasting power:

Donovan almost never pops up. Baseball Savant defines a pop up as a batted ball with a launch angle of 50 degrees or more. Donovan popped up on only 3.7% of his batted balls by that definition, the 10th-lowest mark in the game. Sure, he wasn’t getting much high-end production out of his batted balls, but he had very few completely wasted at-bats. He didn’t strike out much and didn’t pop up much, and posted an above-average line drive rate to boot. That’s not a particularly sticky statistic, but a tighter-than-average launch angle distribution is correlated with a high line drive rate, so I’d expect him to keep hitting more than his fair share of liners in 2023.

Will Donovan’s pitch-magneting, line-drive-hitting ways be enough to keep his batting line afloat in 2023? I think the total package will work, and that he’ll continue to get on base at a drool-worthy clip despite a worrisome lack of power. I also think he’ll be meaningfully worse than he was in 2022, at least offensively; there’s simply no way that pitchers will give him as many free passes as they did last year, and I don’t think he can make up for that shortcoming without adding some power.

The bottom line is this: there are always going to be players who succeed in the majors without prototypical power. To make that balancing act work, you need to add value somewhere else. It can be an unrivaled ability to make consistent hard contact, like Mookie Betts. It can be blinding speed that turns outs into singles. It can be great bat control, the Luis Arraez path, or impeccable strike zone management, like Steven Kwan. Brendan Donovan isn’t the best at any of those skills. He’s so good at so many little things, though, that I think he’ll continue to be an above-average major league hitter, even as he continues to put up batted ball metrics that scream minor leaguer.

All of this is food for thought. Donovan has a window of playing opportunity while the Cardinals assess whether speedy prospect Masyn Winn can progress to regular big league infield work by the 2024 season.

Can Donovan continue making the most of it?

ELSEWHERE ON THE CARDINALS FRONT

Here is what folks have been writing about the Birds on Bat:

Bradford Doolittle, ESPN.com: “This doesn't look like the most athletic Cardinals team in history but it does look like a lineup that can mash up and down the order. As in from the very top to the very bottom. For that statement to turn out to be true, it'll require continued development and success from some young players, such as (Dylan) Carlson, (Lars) Nootbaar, Donovan and (Juan) Yepez. But it's an impressive mix and the base lineup doesn't even include youngsters Nolan Gorman, who can mash but has questionable strike-zone command, and Jordan Walker, who could hit St. Louis with a flourish this season. When we say that the Cardinals' applied speed is a weakness, it's just an observed trait, not a condemnation, as this is simply how the club has been built -- and that trait hasn't derailed the ability of St. Louis to field elite defenses. The lineup, already deep, got even longer with the offseason addition of (Willson) Contreras. The Cardinals are projected to have six players in the 90th percentile or better by OPS+, the most of any club in the majors.”

Thomas Harrigan, MLB.com: “With Cards legend Yadier Molina slumping to career worst offensive levels in his final MLB season and Andrew Knizner supplying little offense in his own right, St. Louis’ catching group posted the third-lowest OPS (.552) in the Majors, better than only the Pirates and Guardians. Knizner’s .601 OPS was actually the highest among the four players who started a game behind the plate for the Cards in 2022, and the quartet of Molina, Knizner, Ivan Herrera and Austin Romine combined for -0.6 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs . . . The Cardinals went out and signed one of the top hitting catchers in the game, inking free agent Willson Contreras to a five-year, $87.5 million deal. Contreras, the longtime starting catcher for the rival Cubs, has four 20-plus home run seasons on his resume as well as a lifetime .808 OPS, including .815 in 2022. Steamer, one of baseball’s premier projection systems, predicts the 30-year-old will produce 3.2 WAR in 2023, tied for the seventh-best projection among catchers.”

Rob Mains, Baseball Prospectus: “In 2022, the Dodgers led the majors with 54 games won in their division. The Astros won 51. The Mets won 50. The Braves won 48. They were also all good teams in interdivision play: 42-24, 43-23, 42-24, and 40-26, respectively. But St. Louis tied the Braves with 48 intradivisional wins, and Cleveland was next (tied with the Yankees) with 47. Outside their respective Centrals, the Cardinals were 35-31 against the rest of the National League. The Guardians were 33-33 against the rest of the AL. True, teams will have two fewer interdivisional games than last year. But to the degree to which those games, in 2022, indicated teams’ true talent, they seem at a disadvantage when they give up 24 games against the weaklings in their own division and add 26 games against teams in the other leagues. St. Louis and Cleveland may remain the class of their divisions. But they were also the weakest division champions. St. Louis was eight games worse than the Braves, 18 worse than the Dodgers, and got bounced in the Wild Card round. Cleveland was seven games worse than the Yankees and eight worse than the Astros, and exited in the Division Series. Those gaps may be exacerbated in 2023.”

David Schoenfield, ESPN.com: “As always, the Cardinals don't have any glaring holes, although the rotation is counting on 41-year-old Adam Wainwright and Jack Flaherty and Steven Matz being healthy. What they do have is an excess of depth in their position players -- particularly once Jordan Walker, perhaps the best hitting prospect in the minors, belts his way into the majors, which might be sooner rather than later. The Cardinals have forced Gorman to second base, but his lack of range is an issue, so Brendan Donovan is expected to start there. They also have DH covered with Juan Yepez, Alec Burleson and perhaps Walker. Gorman's years of team control and power potential could bring a nice starter in return -- if there's one out there.”

Geoff Pontes, Baseball America: “Few pitchers in the lower levels of the minor leagues burst onto the scene in the fashion (Tink) Hence did in 2022. Drafted in 2020, Hence had a total of just eight professional innings under his belt entering the season. He got a late start, as he didn’t make his debut until May 19, but the results that followed were outstanding. Over 52.1 innings across 15 appearances, Hence allowed eight earned runs and just one home run, while striking 81 batters to just 15 walks. While Hence was certainly handled with kid gloves in his full-season debut, he boasted one of the best fastballs in the minors. Sitting 94-96 mph, and touching 99 mph at peak, Hence pairs power with a flat vertical approach angle . . . Hence’s fastball generates whiffs at an elite rate, with his 35% whiff rate . . . In short, Hence’s four-seamer misses more bats than any fastball thrown by a righthander among the Top 100 Prospects. What keeps Hence behind others on this list with lower whiff rates is his still improving fastball command, which will fluctuate at times. While he’s still an average strike-thrower with his fastball, he did have the highest rate of bad misses on the list.”

MEGAPHONE

“Forever grateful. Soaking wet and freezing on the field with tears in my eyes after winning the World Series in Chicago. The comfort of calling St. Louis home and being a Red Bird. Today is one of those moments where you where you metaphorically step down from your throne with a standing ovation, tip of the cap and the world stops spinning.”

Former Cardinals outfielder Dexter Fowler, announcing his decision to retire.