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  • Josh Donaldson Trade Paying Dividends


    Cody Christie

    Former Twin Josh Donaldson had his name in the news for all the wrong reasons this weekend. Even with his on-field successes, it’s clear that the Twins were correct in moving on from Donaldson.

    Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

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    Over the weekend, Josh Donaldson was involved in an altercation with Chicago's Tim Anderson. Donaldson allegedly called Anderson "Jackie," a reference to Jackie Robinson, that he thought was an inside joke between the two players. Major League Baseball investigated the incident, which involves multiple layers, and suspended Donaldson for one game. During his Twins tenure, Donaldson made headlines for multiple incidents, including calling out Gerrit Cole for his use of sticky substances and an ejection after hitting a home run.  

    Originally, the Twins signed Donaldson as a veteran presence on a team in the middle of their winning window. Across two seasons, he hit .243/.355/.474 (.829) with a 129 OPS+ in 163 games. During the playoffs following the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Donaldson wasn't available, and the Twins were terrible in 2021. He was entering his age-36 season, and the front office found a way to get out from under his contract. 

    On March 13, the Twins finalized a deal that sent Donaldson to the Yankees along with Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Ben Rortvedt. In return, Minnesota received Gary Sánchez and Gio Urshela. All five players projected to be in each team's plans for the entire 2022 season, but baseball doesn't always work out that way. 

    Yankees Acquisitions: Donaldson (1.6 WAR), Kiner-Falefa (0.3 WAR), Rortvedt (60-day IL)
    When making a trade, teams usually don't like to surrender the best player involved in the deal. Minnesota clearly did that as Donaldson is having a tremendous season as the Yankees sit five games up in the AL East. Age doesn't seem to be catching up to Donaldson, as he has a 126 OPS+ for the fourth consecutive season. Defensively, he is also having a resurgence as he ranks in the 81st percentile for Outs Above Average (OAA). Even with this kind of production, Donaldson has other baggage that some teams want to avoid. It remains to be seen if he can keep up this production through a 162-game schedule. 

    Kiner-Falefa never appeared in a game for the Twins after being acquired from the Rangers as part of the Mitch Garver trade. So far this season, he has hit .264/.317/.312 (.629) with an 88 OPS+, which is seven points higher than his career mark. His Whiff% is in the 95th percentile, and his OAA (6th percentile) is one of the lowest marks among shortstops. Rortvedt underwent arthroscopic left knee surgery and may not be available until after the All-Star break. 

    Twins Acquisitions: Sánchez (0.4 WAR), Urshela (0.1 WAR)
    A couple of weeks ago, Ted examined Minnesota's acquisitions from the Donaldson trade. Both players had yet to make a significant mark on the team, but those results may slowly change in the Twins' favor. Sánchez has surprised in multiple ways as he has an OPS+ of over 110 for the first time since he was an All-Star in 2019. He has also improved his framing metrics as he ranks in the 64th percentile, his highest mark since 2018. According to Win Probability Added, Sánchez ranks fourth on the Twins hitters behind Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, and Luis Arraez

    In 2019 and 2020, Urshela hit .310/.359/.523 (.881) with a 134 OPS+, and that's the player the Twins were hoping to unlock. So far in 2022, he has been closer to the 2021 version of Urshela that posted a 96 OPS+ in 116 games. His K% is in the 91st percentile, and he provides little defensive value with an OAA in the 11th percentile. Over his last 100 plate appearances, his xwOBA has been above the league average, so there may still be hope for him breaking out of his offensive slump. 

    At the end of the day, it's clear the Twins wanted to be "out of the Josh Donaldson business." His on-the-field performance outweighs the value the Twins got in return, but his other antics can rub a clubhouse the wrong way. Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa provide a different kind of leadership for the Twins, and Minnesota is better off with him off the roster. 

    What are your thoughts as you look back on the Donaldson trade? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. 

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    3 minutes ago, rwilfong86 said:

    Well, there is a reason I have a pair of his game used cleats signed on display in my basement in my house along with a signed ball. My signed jersey is currently getting framed as we speak. 

    20220524_131216.jpg

    If Jake Cave is ever called up again, he needs to get you on his show. 

     

    2022-05-24_16-39-02.jpg

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    59 minutes ago, rwilfong86 said:

    Well, I've had nothing but positive interactions with him first hand as a fan, and some athletes can be kind of douchey because they're athletes and he is the always the opposite of that. The fans love him, his teammates love him, he's also done a lot to help out people back in his hometown in Venezuela and he is a great dad and a great husband. You don't have to know a person intimately to know he is a great guy who loves the game of baseball and likes to have fun.

    Well I hope you don't know him intimately.  But even if you do, no real need to call him a cancer...or anybody else for that matter.  Now as for douchey....... I wonder what his opinion would be of you...ya know..?.  Asking for a friend.

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    2 minutes ago, se7799 said:

    Well I hope you don't know him intimately.  But even if you do, no real need to call him a cancer...or anybody else for that matter.  Now as for douchey....... I wonder what his opinion would be of you...ya know..?.  Asking for a friend.

    The funny thing is even a guy like Aaron Judge were critical of Donaldson, and that's his teammate. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/yankees-aaron-judge-criticizes-josh-donaldsons-jackie-comment-i-dont-think-its-the-right-thing-to-do/ar-AAXFybL

    I actually do my job and don't invite drama and controversy at work, so there wouldn't be anything negative someone could say about me. 

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    9 minutes ago, se7799 said:

    Well I hope you don't know him intimately.  But even if you do, no real need to call him a cancer...or anybody else for that matter.  Now as for douchey....... I wonder what his opinion would be of you...ya know..?.  Asking for a friend.

    That's cute

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    So Donaldson, by himself, has been worth 3x the amount of WAR as what the Twins received, but at this moment we're calling it a win for the Twins....

    If we're convinced Donaldson is going to fall off a cliff to make this trade palatable, maybe we could, ya know, let that actually happen before proclaiming this a W. 

    It's also heartwarming to see TD turning into Twitter, where garbage tier hot takes rule the day and substantiating any of the claims is an afterthought. 

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    Everyone should just listen to what Judge said, he hits it spot on.  And he doesn't shy away from saying it again even after a private apology from JD.

    Think whatever you want about whether Anderson should've made that comp in the first place, dropping it in the middle of a brawl after you kneed the dude off 3B and spent the series chirping is, at best, pure stupidity.  He did it to upset Anderson, knowing why it would upset him, and then a totally BS line of reasoning to excuse it.  

    I'd have had a lot more respect for Donaldson and his intentions if he had just said "I got heated and wanted to say something nasty because I was pissed off, but I crossed a line I shouldn't have.  It wasn't ok, I'm sorry."  

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    Well—pretty consensus everyone was happy to move on from Donaldson.  My  biggest gripe was he was always hurt.  Don’t run your mouth if you can’t play, veteran or not.  The albatross of his contract without being on the field was terrible.  Once you have the continuous nagging injury like he had, they are recurrent.  Time on IL for the Yanks is around the corner.  Correa seems to be a good clubhouse fit.  Either Sanchez or Urshella gets traded for relief pitching to rebuild the pen this year, so the cycle isn’t over.  
    Thank goodness Sano is not a problem right now!  
    last thought, time to move on from The new Scott Baker—Tyler Duffey.  How long are we going to wait for this guy to figure it out?  If he has to throw to more than 2 batters, he is a big risk. Medium 90s speed with no movement and questionable control is not a great formula

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    2 hours ago, bean5302 said:

    So Josh Donaldson just randomly knew about a 2019 interview Tim Anderson gave where Tim Anderson compared himself to the next Jackie Robinson (one of the greatest baseball players of ALL TIME)? Come on. This absolute obsession with making everything racist is gross. That said, I will stand 100% corrected if such interview comment did not occur.

    It did. I believe it was in the SI Baseball Preview edition.

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    27 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

    Everyone should just listen to what Judge said, he hits it spot on.  And he doesn't shy away from saying it again even after a private apology from JD.

    Think whatever you want about whether Anderson should've made that comp in the first place, dropping it in the middle of a brawl after you kneed the dude off 3B and spent the series chirping is, at best, pure stupidity.  He did it to upset Anderson, knowing why it would upset him, and then a totally BS line of reasoning to excuse it.  

    I'd have had a lot more respect for Donaldson and his intentions if he had just said "I got heated and wanted to say something nasty because I was pissed off, but I crossed a line I shouldn't have.  It wasn't ok, I'm sorry."  

    Not sure what line he crossed other than renting space between Anderson's ears. As I said earlier perhaps it was ill advised but it certainly was not racism.

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    2 minutes ago, Epravens said:

    Not sure what line he crossed other than renting space between Anderson's ears. As I said earlier perhaps it was ill advised but it certainly was not racism.

    I don't know if he intended to be racist, but I know saying what he did as a slight made it possible to perceive it that way to Anderson and others. And if I were Donaldson and I opened that door, my apology would've looked a lot less jackassy.  He lost my sympathy with "but I was joking....derp"

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    In my opinion you also have to factor in the fact that had the Twins not been able to trade Donaldson, they would not have been able to sign Correa.  As good as Lewis looked the short time he was with the Twins, Correa has been a big difference overall with this team, and there were a lot of question marks with Lewis at the start of the season due to health and missed time.  I think Correa was the biggest addition with the Donaldson trade.

     

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    7 hours ago, Dman said:

    Doesn't the trade of Donaldson really include Mitch Garver to some degree as well?  The Twins couldn't get Kiner-Falefa without giving up Garver so in the end the trade was. Garver, Kiner-Falefa, Rortvedt and Donalson for Sanchez, Urshela and Henriquez? I don't think you can completely leave the loss of Garver out of that trade IMO.  That seems like a lot to give up to get rid of Donaldson.

    Personally I think the Twins were closer to using Royce Lewis at short to start the season or maybe even Palacios than we might realize.  Story was pretty set to go to Boston and it looked like Boras shopped Correa before coming to the Twins who were one of very few teams desperate enough to get something done there.

    It all worked remarkably well and maybe you could add Correa in the trade scenario above as the Twins wouldn't have the money to sign him without moving on from Donaldson but getting Correa feels more like luck than any real kind of FO plan as they looked like only team left that hadn't filled their massive shortstop need.

    I like the Twins clubhouse and given the reports I have seen so do the players.

     

    I think this article sums it up pretty well:

    Twins winning and having fun while doing it, tout their clubhouse chemistry

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    2 hours ago, Linus said:

    Well they should have never signed him in the first place so I’m not going to give Falvine  refit for dumping him. 

    Do tell why in 2020 it was a bad idea for them to sign Donaldson. He filled a huge need (3B) for a price much lower than a lot of people thought. He lived up to expectations in his two years here.

    Why do you think they shouldn’t have signed him in the first place?

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    10 hours ago, snellman said:

    In my opinion you also have to factor in the fact that had the Twins not been able to trade Donaldson, they would not have been able to sign Correa.  As good as Lewis looked the short time he was with the Twins, Correa has been a big difference overall with this team, and there were a lot of question marks with Lewis at the start of the season due to health and missed time.  I think Correa was the biggest addition with the Donaldson trade.

     

    The Twins traded just over 24 million (Donaldson and Garver) for 15.5 million (Sanchez, Gio), So around 10 million in savings, They traded fro Gray 10.66 and signed Correa. So based on those numbers they could have signed Correa without trading Donaldson, probably would have left them with Gray. My point is the Twins could have signed Correa without trading Donaldson and been in the same salary position range.

    With that said I was fine with the Donaldson trade and thought it was probably the right move for the team.

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    34 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

    The Twins traded just over 24 million (Donaldson and Garver) for 15.5 million (Sanchez, Gio), So around 10 million in savings, They traded fro Gray 10.66 and signed Correa. So based on those numbers they could have signed Correa without trading Donaldson, probably would have left them with Gray. My point is the Twins could have signed Correa without trading Donaldson and been in the same salary position range.

    With that said I was fine with the Donaldson trade and thought it was probably the right move for the team.

    I agree they could have managed paying Donaldson and Correa.  However, everyone is looking at this from purely a present year lens and I think it had little to do with this year.  Everything they did pointed toward putting together a good product this year with an emphasis on positioning for the future.  They had several personnel transitions that needed to be made if they were to sustain any sort of real success.  They may have also felt moving Donaldson was needed to improve chemistry / culture and they may have been very important during a period of other transitions.   

    Miranda and Lewis were and are the future although I am sure they did not believe Lewis would be ready this soon.   They  also needed to transition Larnach and Celestino to the OF and this is going to be Sano's last year.  Then you have Ryan and Winder taking over rotation spots and Duran / Jax and others taking over BP spots.   The FO was betting enough of these players would be productive enough this year to improve the team while positioning us extremely well in the future.    

    I also have not seen anyone include the $21.75M next year of the $16M in 2024 or $8M buyout.  Whatever they are able to add with those funds in 2023 and 2024 needs to be added to this equation.   I just don't think the 2022 budget was a major part of this decision.  Every move with the exception of Correa emphasized the long-term.  Rodon is the only free agent SP that would have been a good add.  Many here would have been very happy had they signed Ray and kept Donaldson.  IMO, they are waaaaay better positioned as a result of trading Donaldson and not signing Ray or Stroman or even Pineda had support here.

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    53 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

    I agree they could have managed paying Donaldson and Correa.  However, everyone is looking at this from purely a present year lens and I think it had little to do with this year.  Everything they did pointed toward putting together a good product this year with an emphasis on positioning for the future.  They had several personnel transitions that needed to be made if they were to sustain any sort of real success.  They may have also felt moving Donaldson was needed to improve chemistry / culture and they may have been very important during a period of other transitions.   

    Miranda and Lewis were and are the future although I am sure they did not believe Lewis would be ready this soon.   They  also needed to transition Larnach and Celestino to the OF and this is going to be Sano's last year.  Then you have Ryan and Winder taking over rotation spots and Duran / Jax and others taking over BP spots.   The FO was betting enough of these players would be productive enough this year to improve the team while positioning us extremely well in the future.    

    I also have not seen anyone include the $21.75M next year of the $16M in 2024 or $8M buyout.  Whatever they are able to add with those funds in 2023 and 2024 needs to be added to this equation.   I just don't think the 2022 budget was a major part of this decision.  Every move with the exception of Correa emphasized the long-term.  Rodon is the only free agent SP that would have been a good add.  Many here would have been very happy had they signed Ray and kept Donaldson.  IMO, they are waaaaay better positioned as a result of trading Donaldson and not signing Ray or Stroman or even Pineda had support here.

    ? agree with everything you wrote, and you did a better job of saying what I was thinking, I guess my point was the Donaldson trade wasn't about swapping him out for Correa, it was more inline of what you are saying.

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    The only vivid memory I have of Donaldson's stint here was him pulling his calf on the way to first base. He never lived up to anything close to the cost of having him on the roster. I already have memories of a couple walk-off hits by Sanchez and Urshela, plus a game where Urshela had multiple defensive gems to seal a win. So far so good from my stand point.

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    10 minutes ago, Graham Smith said:

    The only vivid memory I have of Donaldson's stint here was him pulling his calf on the way to first base. He never lived up to anything close to the cost of having him on the roster. I already have memories of a couple walk-off hits by Sanchez and Urshela, plus a game where Urshela had multiple defensive gems to seal a win. So far so good from my stand point.

    As someone who was excited to sign Donaldson (remembering his days in Oakland ... that's the Donaldson I wanted), and as someone who thought I'd miss him, I concur with the above statement. Haven't missed him and I think he's been replaced just fine.

    And welcome to TD! Nice first post ... hope to see more from you!

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    18 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

    I don't know if he intended to be racist, but I know saying what he did as a slight made it possible to perceive it that way to Anderson and others. And if I were Donaldson and I opened that door, my apology would've looked a lot less jackassy.  He lost my sympathy with "but I was joking....derp"

    He was suspended due to perceived racist nature of the comment and for me it is NOT possible to perceive that, The jackassy part of this equation is what Anderson said in the first place.

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    39 minutes ago, Epravens said:

    He was suspended due to perceived racist nature of the comment and for me it is NOT possible to perceive that, The jackassy part of this equation is what Anderson said in the first place.

    Look, you can certainly feel that about Anderson's remark.  It isn't relevant, hard as that might be to swallow.

    Donaldson employing that phrase in a scrum is a jackass move.  He meant it to be hurtful and rub Anderson the wrong way.  Pretending it was a joke only doubles down on that.  And here's the part where you need to look in the mirror: MLB didn't suspend him for anything regarding racism.  You think they did and imply it here, but YOU planted that into the conversation.  And it sure feels like you're looking so hard to be offended by it that you never bothered to check the truth value of what you're arguing.  Here's what the MLB ACTUALLY said:

    "Regardless of Mr. Donaldson's intent, the comment he directed toward Mr. Anderson was disrespectful and in poor judgment, particularly when viewed in the context of their prior interactions.

    "In addition, Mr. Donaldson’s remark was a contributing factor in a bench-clearing incident between the teams, and warrants discipline.

    And they are 100% right.  It was disrespectful.  It did show poor judgment.  It was clearly baiting given his knee on Anderson a few days earlier.  He was THE key part in that escalation.  

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    On 5/24/2022 at 4:31 PM, PseudoSABR said:

    Anderson was comparing himself to Jackie because of the dearth of African Americans in baseball; not because his play was comparable.   That's part of what makes Donaldson's comments so offensive.  

    After your response, I spent about 15 minutes searching and eventually found the interview.

    https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/04/30/tim-anderson-white-sox-speaks-out

    Tim Anderson compared himself to Jackie Robinson because Tim Anderson is breaking the barrier of fun and I saw this comparison being made by Anderson several times since. Essentially, Tim Anderson is just like Jackie Robinson because Jackie broke the color barrier and Tim is breaking the celebratory barrier. Two takes on that. First, Tim Anderson comes across as disrespectful towards Jackie Robinson to me. Comparing what Jackie Robinson endured to the chastising for high flying bat flips seems tone deaf to me. Second, there have been a lot of baseball players who've been very expressive and broken those types of barriers before. Honestly, the Latin American players have led the way on the celebratory and emotional expression front in MLB for the past decade and have made a major impact in softening the unwritten rule blowback from emotional outbursts.

    I can't find anything which supports your position.

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