The New York Yankees traded Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela in the spring of 2022 to bring in, among others, third baseman Josh Donaldson.
He was fresh off a good 2021 season with the Minnesota Twins and the Yankees bet important resources on him keeping that level for two more campaigns.
That wasn’t the case.
At the moment, Donaldson is rehabbing a calf strain and could be game-ready in a week or two.
The Yanks, however, are in a complete youth movement, which has been the right move for weeks.
There is no place for Donaldson to play at the moment, so the Yankees are granting him his release, according to Jeff Passan.
The New York Yankees have released third baseman Josh Donaldson.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 29, 2023
The news comes as quite a shock, as the team was preparing to bring Donaldson back at some point in September.
However, as stated, doing that would take away important at-bats that could go to the future core of the team, with players like Everson Pereira, Oswaldo Cabrera, and Oswald Peraza.
Donaldson will become a free agent at the end of the regular season and the Yankees will honor the remainder of his contract, which is a few weeks worth of pay.
He has been out since July with his second calf strain of the year.
Donaldson, 37, will end his Yankees career with a paltry .207/.293/.385 line and 25 homers across 666 plate appearances in 165 games.
That’s certainly not what New York had in mind at the moment of the acquisition, but it was part of the risk when acquiring a 36-year-old player on his decline.
Donaldson will be free to sign with any team, and the jokes about the Los Angeles Dodgers adding him and turning him into an MVP candidate for what is left of the season are already populating the web.
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