Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras, left, celebrates with left fielder Brendan Donovan after defeating the Mets in the first game of a doubleheader Sunday, May 4, 2025, in St. Louis.
Ballplayers come in different sizes with their own individual abilities and from a variety of backgrounds. They also have their own personalities and different ways they approach the game on a day-to-day basis.
The fact that there’s no cookie cutter profile that neatly encompasses everyone remains one of the great, interesting and fun things about baseball. We’re remined of that every time the Cardinals take the field with Willson Contreras and Brendan Donovan in their lineup.
For much of this season, they’ve played side by side in the field with Contreras at first base and Donovan at second base. They also batted back-to-back for a large chunk of the season. Until recently, Donovan primarily occupied the No. 3 hole in the batting order and Contreras most frequently slotted in at either No. 2 or No. 4.
Donovan, 28, entered Saturday ranked third in the National League with a .313 batting average and leading the NL in line drive percentage (32.4%). He also ranked among league leaders in hits (83, sixth), doubles (21, tied for third) and three-hit games (11, tied for first).
Contreras, 33, entered the day leading the Cardinals in home runs (10), RBIs (50) and extra-base hits (26). He sat just two RBIs shy of his season total in 2019. He’s on pace for career highs in runs, hits, doubles, stolen bases and RBIs.
In many ways they’re like fire and ice, at least on the surface. Donovan typically gives off a calm, calculating, stoic and under control vibe as if a chess player in a baseball uniform.
Contreras plays with hair on fire, demonstrative, loud and emotions constantly on his sleeve. If you didn’t know any better, you might take him for a maniac.
The more you watch the duo, the more it hits you that there’s a yin and yang to the styles they bring to the ballpark.
Funny enough, Donovan told me at the start of this season that he hoped to lean into his emotions more this season even though it’s not something that comes natural to him on the field.
“I try to be the same person every day,†Donovan said at the start of this season. “Obviously, the game is extremely hard, but the hardest part about the game is showing up and being the same person every day. So it’s something I do make an effort to do.
“I mean, I’m human though. We all succumb to emotions. But it is something that I do work towards. I try to focus on a consistent routine, positive self-talk, but there are times I feel like when I want to kick myself in the butt and show some more emotion.â€
Contreras requires no kick. Cardinals fans have seen Contreras moved to tears on the field multiple times in a little more than two seasons with the club.
Whether Adam Wainwright’s 200th career win triggered the waterworks or a two-homer game at Busch Stadium in front of Contreras’ parents visiting from Venezuela in 2023 or Contreras letting his feelings about the political climate in his home country bubble over into tears on the eve of elections in 2024, he’s let it all hang out.
This season, Contreras moved from catcher to first base and it hasn’t changed the fire he plays with one bit.
“I think that doesn’t go away,†Contreras said earlier this spring. “That’s in my blood. That’s already the way I play. It’s not like it’s going to disappear from one year to another. I think it’s just part of the game.â€
Asked about the reason emotions play such a big part in his game, Contreras told me, “I think just knowing where I come from, what I needed to do to get to the big leagues — what I went through — I think that’s the best way to put it. Whenever I play, I feel like, in my mind, I own my position. I own my at-bats. That’s the way I think.â€
Contreras is still the guy that shows more flare than anyone in the majors when he draws a walk, flipping his bat toward the dugout more emphatically than most players do after a home run.
He’s still the guy that might eviscerate a helmet, a bat rack or a cooler after a strikeout or particularly bad stretch at the plate. He’s still the guy that feeds off the negativity he gets on the road from opposing fan bases like this past week against the Chicago White Sox.
He’s not apologetic about leaning into emotions.
“You have to have a guy that brings the energy and that it’s contagious,†Contreras said. “Every team is different, but if you look around the exciting teams, the teams that have won lately, they have exciting players and they play with emotion. So I think it’s good to have it.â€
Donovan, who grew up in a miliary family in Alabama, is as likely to have the same look on his face after he laced double as after a lineout.
That’s simply his way.
“I think I’m just a serious person,†Donovan said. “It could be the military background in me. That might have something to do with it. Sometimes showing emotion could be seen as — not showing someone up, but I don’t know, it’s like good you did your job. You’re supposed to do that.â€
Donovan, now in his fourth major-league season, traces that outlook back to his collegiate career at South Alabama. When he stepped up to that level and experienced real adversity, that made him realize that having a tendency to “live and die†with every at-bat might not be the wisest path.
Since then, Donovan has leaned into consistency.
“It’s easier said than done, but on a daily basis I try to focus on my preparation, my mentality and my effort,†Donovan said. “Those are three things I feel like I can control in this game because it’s so wild.â€
Former Cardinals star Paul Goldschmidt’s knack for meeting triumph and failure the same every day, and Donovan watched and emulated a lot of what Goldy did.
“Your support group,†Donovan added. “Those people around you, my wife and my family, are truly amazing and they’re nothing but positive and supportive. So I think that has something to do with it also.â€
Neither Conteras or Donovan necessarily plays the right way or the wrong way. They both have played while beat up and injured. There’s a shared level of aggressiveness, perhaps risk-taking, on the bases they both exhibit.
They’re just two different birds perched on the same bat.
