Yeah, pretty clear that Aitkins and Shaprio are going to define themselves with the next few days. That said, they came in here thanks to whoever was in charge at Rogers at the time, looking to get away from AA and the baseball decisions he was making (and driving up payroll). With Rogers and their spinning door of Blue Jays caretakers, and themselves wanting out of the Jays altogether, I get less warm and fuzzies from my already skeptical opinion of Shapiro and Aitken.
If they're trying to keep the hopes up (and thus ticket prices, advertiser dollars) etc while they sell the team, to keep it looking more viable then it is, they'll sit on Donaldson for the time being (and call it a win) and sign a guy like CC as well as some other established name to give the appearances of relevance.
In truth, as much as it hurts and signals that the 4 year+ rebuild is on, they should be asking the moon for Donaldson to a desperate Cards team who are looking to keep up in the arms race after getting rejected a few times this year from of course Stanton, Ohtani and others.
Donaldson could have an even better year and drive up the price some more, but more downside risk and the Cards need to do something this offseason for their own hubris. So they should take them to the cleaners with a couple guys that can play this year, a couple decent projects, and even cash...and not bother with CC.
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