Third baseman JOSH DONALDSON announced his retirement today.
Back in November, he expressed an openness to playing one more year under " the right circumstances ", although it now seems " The Bringer of Rain " has decided it is time to hang up his spikes.

Donaldson, now 38, took a winding path to the major leagues and was a late bloomer, however he nonetheless reached incredible heights as a big leaguer once everything aligned.

While playing third base at Auburn University, he began to learn how to catch. The Cubs then selected him as a catcher with the 48th overall pick in the 2007 draft. In July of 2008, he was traded to the Athletics, one of four players going to Oakland in exchange for Canadian-born RHP RICH HARDEN and RHP CHAD GAUDIN.

As he climbed the minor league ladder with his new club, his bat was considered ahead of his glove, an understandable situation given he was relatively new to catching.

He made his major league debut in 2010 but hit just .156/.206/.281 in his first 34 plate appearances. 

He was stuck in the minors in 2011, then spent 2012 being shuttled between the majors and the minors, gradually spending more time at third base over that stretch.

His breakout season finally came in 2013, when Donaldson was 27 years old. 

Now done with catching for good, he appeared in 158 games for the A’s that year as their everyday third baseman, hitting 24 home runs, drawing a walk in 11.4 % of his plate appearances, only striking out at a 16.5 % rate. His .301/.384/.499 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 147 and he got strong grades for his defense at the hot corner, leading to a tally of 7.3 wins above replacement from FanGraphs and 7.2 from Baseball-Reference. He finished fourth in American League MVP voting.

Donaldson followed that up with a similarly excellent season in 2014 and the A’s made the postseason for a third straight year, but made a quick playoff exit all three times. The club decided to undergo a huge roster overhaul that winter, a frequent occurrence for the club and its persistent financial concerns. Going into 2015, the club traded away names like OF BRANDON MOSS, RHP JEFF SAMARDZIJA and also flipped Donaldson to the Toronto Blue Jays in a four player package.

His first season in Toronto would eventually prove to be the best of his career. He launched 41 home runs and slashed .297/.371/.568 for a wRC+ of 154.

The Blue Jays won the A.L. East that year and Donaldson launched another three home runs in the playoffs as Toronto advanced as far as the ALCS.;

He was graded as worth 8.7 FWAR and was voted as that year’s A.L. MVP, just ahead of OF MIKE TROUT.

He would go on to have another excellent season for Toronto in 2016, hitting 37 home runs as they advanced to the ALCS yet again.

He scored the winning run in the ALDS by dashing home from second on a fielder’s choice to secure an extra-inning victory over the Texas Rangers.

Then, in 2017, various injuries started to crop up, which would go on to be a key issue in the rest of his career. He was still excellent that season, slashing .270/.385/.559 while hitting 33 home runs, but was limited to 113 contests due to a calf strain.

He and the Blue Jays agreed to a $ 23 MM salary for 2018, his final year of arbitration control. Since the Blue Jays had fallen to fourth place the year prior, there were some trade rumors around Donaldson that winter but he ultimately stayed put.

He spent much of that year on the injured list due to shoulder and calf issues. With Toronto out of contention at the August waiver deadline, he was flipped to the Cleveland Indians for RHP JULIAN MERRYWEATHER, although Donaldson only played 16 games for Cleveland after that deal as he continued battling his injuries.

He finally reached free agency that winter, but with a limited amount of momentum. Thanks to his late-bloomer trajectory, he was going into his age-33 season and coming off an injury-marred campaign.

ALEX ANTHOPOULOS, who acquired Donaldson when he was making decisions for the Blue Jays, had become the general manager in Atlanta prior to the 2018 campaign. He gave Donaldson a one year “ prove-it ” deal worth $ 23 MM.

Donaldson bounced back tremendously with Atlanta, getting into 155 games, walking in 15.2 % of his plate appearances and hitting .259/.379/.521 for a 131 wRC+.

He rejected a qualifying offer from Atlanta and then signed a four year, $ 92 MM deal with the Twins.

Issues with his right calf cropped up again in 2020, as he only played 28 games during that shortened season, but was able to get into 135 contests the year after and launched 26 home runs in the process.

With two years still left on that deal, the Twins flipped him to the New York Yankees alongside INF ISIAH KINER-FALEFA and C BEN RORTVEDT, with 3B GIO URSHELA and C GARY SANCHEZ going the other way.

Donaldson was healthy enough to get into 132 games in 2022 but his production tailed off, only hitting 15 homers and struck out at a 27.1 % clip, leading to a line of .222/.308/.374.

He spent much of 2023 on the injured list and was released at the end of August, joining the Milwaukee Brewers for the stretch run before returning to free agency after the season.

It was not a storybook ending though Donaldson nonetheless managed to weave together quite a career.

Despite not truly breaking out until the age of 27, he still managed to get into 1,384 games and rack up 1,310 hits.

That latter figure includes 287 doubles, 12 triples and 279 home runs. He had matching tallies of 816 runs scored and runs batted in, stealing 40 bases in the process. He received an MVP award, three All-Star selections and two Silver Slugger Awards.

His fiery personality which drove him to succeed also rankled some people around the game, as he often quarrelled with umpires, coaches and fellow players, although that combination of his talent and prickly character will likely lead him to being one of the more memorable players of his era.

SPECIAL TO WWW.CANADIANBASEBALLNEWS.COM

MONDAY 04 MARCH 2024