Josh Donaldson, a 13-year standout third baseman and three-time All-Star, who was the season’s most valuable player in 2015 in the American League, announced his retirement Monday. He released the decision in a podcast by former player Sean Casey.
Donaldson ends his career with 279 homers, 1,310 hits, and a long-earned reputation of playing with an edge and never concerned much about how he was perceived. He had his best year in 2015 with Toronto when he slammed 41 homers, drove in a league-high 123 runs while scoring an ML-best 122.
Donaldson got 23 of 30 first-place votes for the MVP, comfortably outdistancing Mike Trout for the award. Donaldson finished in the Top 10 for his league’s MVP four times.
Why Did Josh Donaldson Leave the Athletics
Josh Donaldson left the Athletics because they traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays of 2014. The Athletics made their decision because of several reasons on their finances and the opportunity to introduce the youth in the game.
That was when the team decided to trade Josh Donaldson. The moves and changes in sports usually happen due to reasons by mostly involving scientific reason for the team, contracts of players, general team dynamics, long-term aspect.
On such a basis, the athletes made a business decision that would go a long way to benefit the team hence resulting.
Josh Donaldson Achievements So Far
Josh Donaldson spent his career with the Athletics, which entailed significant gong-ons during his tenure with the team. He played for them in the period of 2010 to 2014 as the third baseman.
For that year also, it was the first time Donaldson became an All-Star and won the American League Platinum Glove Award as the best performance defensive player. In addition, he wound up in fourth place for the AL MVP voting that year.
How exactly Josh Donaldson influenced Athletics baseball can be given a big-picture look, from home run numbers to on-base percentages. All his consistency and power had put themselves in developing into a player who could contend for an MVP, thus helping the Athletics to reach the playoffs with him in 2012 and 2013.
Final Thoughts
A number of reasons could have been given for Josh Donaldson’s departure from the Braves. From contractual negotiations, to demands of performance and strategic decisions of the team were other such scenario.
Although to the fans this may be like a loss, none the less, player-team dynamics are complex, with decisions made with interest in favor of both parties.
As the baseball journey goes on, one will be nostalgic while sharing memories that he had with the Braves, excited to pen new ones for different facets for this Player and the team.
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