Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos knows what he’s getting with Josh Donaldson… or at least he knows what he could be getting.
The Braves signed the star third baseman to a one-year, $23-million contract Monday and Anthopoulos thinks it could be a bargain deal if Donaldson regains the form that saw him earn three consecutive all-star appearances earlier in his career.
Donaldson, 33, finished top-eight in MVP voting each year from 2013-2016, winning AL MVP in 2015 after his first season in Toronto, and during that stretch averaged 693.5 plate appearances per season and only missed 19 total games.
The two seasons since then has been a different story, as the Bringer of Rain has dealt with lingering injuries that limited him to 496 plate appearances in 2017 and just 219 total plate appearances in 2018 split between the Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians.
“Obviously with the injuries the last few years there’s an element of risk there—and especially with what happened this past year—but the way he came back at the end of the year looked very much like the Donaldson at the end of 2017 when he was on a tear and the other years as well,” Anthopoulos said Tuesday during an appearance on Prime Time Sports. “He was hitting the ball hard, he had good at-bats.”
This is the second time this decade that Anthopoulos has acquired Donaldson. He did so in November of 2014 when he was GM of the Blue Jays and completed a trade with the Oakland Athletics. The Blue Jays made back-to-back trips to the ALCS after landing Donaldson, something Anthopoulos is hoping to duplicate.
“We’re betting on the fact that we think he’s going to be healthy and we’ll be able to keep him on the field,” Anthopoulos said. “We think there’s a very good chance we’re going to get elite-level Josh Donaldson and one of the best players in the game.”
In addition to being back with Anthopoulos, Donaldson is also reuniting with former Blue Jays trainers George Poulis and Mike Frostad, with whom he has a strong rapport.
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