The baseball world was treated to something of a Friday night blockbuster, as the Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland Athletics came together on a trade that featured Josh Donaldson and Brett Lawrie as centerpieces, with three additional prospects heading to Oakland from the Jays.
On the Oakland end, there is no shortage of confusion over just what they were trying to accomplish with this trade, though the fact that Donaldson was coming up on arbitration makes the move less of a surprise. At the same time, the objective from the Toronto side of things is not anything shrouded in mystery. They were making a move in response to the Pablo Sandoval signing by the Boston Red Sox, while at the same time paying handsomely to improve their club’s defense.
If indeed the goal was to respond to the acquisition of Sandoval, as well as Hanley Ramirez, by the Red Sox, then the Blue Jays did exactly what they wanted to do. In Donaldson, they acquire a player who has been labeled as a candidate for the American League Most Valuable Player award in each of the last couple of seasons, providing a source of offensive consistency for Oakland, in addition to the superb defense he demonstrates.
A converted catcher, Donaldson has emerged as one of the premier players in the league at the hot corner. His 2013 season was outstanding, as he reached base at a .384 clip and slugged .499. He did regress a bit in 2014, but did demonstrate an uptick in his power numbers, with 29 home runs, and did still reach base at a rate of .324. A .278 BABIP could certainly be looked at as a source of that regression, at least to a certain degree.
It isn’t terribly difficult to determine what makes Donaldson so valuable at the plate, especially from the perspective of Toronto. He’s not a pure power hitter, as he’s an excellent line drive hitter (.556 BABIP on liners this year). He excelled against left-handed pitching, with a .275 average on the year against southpaws and a .353 ISO. He was also exceptional away from Oakland last year, with a .276 average and .361 OBP, along with 18 of his home runs, which bodes particularly well for the Jays, who play in a hitter-friendly park.
Where Josh Donaldson makes his way onto the highlight reel, though, is with the glove. A terrific glove and absurd arm strength have him among the very best, and were a large part of the reason he was the fifth highest WAR player in the American League last season, with the fourth highest total at 6.4 fWAR.
Donaldson has a combined fielding percentage of .953 in the past two seasons, with 31 Defensive Runs Saved combined as well. Twenty of those came in the 2014 season, and he has 35 for his career. He made 42 plays out of his defensive zone last year, and has 82 in the last two years combined. He’s an absolutely stellar defensive third baseman, and the fact that the Jays surrendered four players to get a player whose game is predicated on what he’s able to do with the glove helps to illustrate how important defense has become.
At the end of the day, this type of deal looks like a steal for the Toronto Blue Jays, despite the fact that they did surrender four players to get him. They gave up a player with extremely questionable makeup in Lawrie, in addition to a shortstop who may not stay at short, in Franklin Barreto. Donaldson is a terrific add with Toronto, thanks to his ability to hit to all fields, hit for power, and provide elite level defense.
Now about that pitching…
