Who is the Better Player? Nico Hoerner or Brendan Donovan?
Welcome back to a series called “Who is the Better Player?” This is part two of an ongoing series that will run throughout the season, continue into the offseason, and pick back up the following year. In each article, I’ll compare two players, break down their statistics, and ultimately share who I believe has the upperhand. I’ll also include a poll at the end so you can voice your own opinion, as well as results from the last poll in article one of this series.
In this article, we’re comparing two of the best second basemen in all of MLB: Nico Hoerner and Brendan Donovan.
Nico Hoerner is a 29 year old second baseman for the Chicago Cubs and is set to enter free agency at 35 years old (he signed an extension with the Cubs in the 2025-2026 offseason). Over his eight season career, all with Chicago, he has earned two Gold Gloves.
Brendan Donovan is a 29 year old utility player who mostly plays second base for the Seattle Mariners and is set to enter free agency at 29 years old. Over his five season career, four seasons with the Cardinals and one season with the Mariners (2026), he has earned one All-Star selection and one Gold Glove.
Because Nico Hoerner has played more games, he will naturally have more at-bats, more hits, more RBIs, and more runs scored. He also has a higher career bWAR (23.9 vs 12.0). He holds the advantage in career stolen bases by a very wide margin (140 vs 16) as well as having a sprint speed over 3 mph faster than Donovan (28.3 vs 25.2). Both his strikeout percentage and his whiff percentage are better than Donovan. Nico is also a better defender, having better range and arm strength. Hoerner’s expected batting average does come in higher than Donovan's, signaling there is some bad luck going on there. Nico can also play shortstop as that was his former position.
However, Brendan Donovan holds the advantage in career OPB (.362 vs .340), SLG (.413 vs .384), OPS (.775 vs .725), and OPS+ (119 vs 104). He also has a better career batting average by .001 with his being .282 and Nico’s being .281. He holds the upper hand in bat speed, and hard hit rate. This is the same case for average exit velocity with Donovan coming in at 85.9 and Hoerner coming in at 85.3. Donovan also walks a little bit more than Hoerner (10.9 vs 10.1). Donovan’s expected slugging percentage and expected wOBA also come in higher than Nico’s which means he is getting a bit unlucky. On the defensive side, Brendan is a very versatile utility and can play basically anywhere you put him.
So, who’s the better player? Based on the numbers, I would say Donovan overall, but for 2026 right now, Hoerner holds the upper hand especially when you factor in that Donovan is injured at the moment. However, this is a VERY close comparison, and I could agree with arguments supporting either side.
But what do you think? Who’s the player in your opinion? Vote in the poll below (at the end of the article) and help decide the winner! In the next article, I’ll reveal the results of the reader vote.
As for the last article comparing Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes, here are the results of the reader’s poll:
Don’t forget to vote in the poll below to help decide who the better player is between Nico Hoerner and Brendan Donovan!
Thanks for reading!