What once looked to be a potentially minor trip to the disabled list for Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson will now be prolonged in fairly considerable fashion. The Blue Jays revealed today that Donaldson incurred a setback while fielding ground-balls in Florida as part of his rehab program (Twitter link via Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling). An MRI has already been taken, revealing an “acute strain” of his calf muscle that’ll require him to be shut down once again. Donaldson will be reevaluated in three weeks, per Zwelling.
That timeline figures to knock Donaldson out for the remainder of the first half, as he’ll assuredly be eased back into baseball activities before ramping up and heading out on a minor league rehab assignment.
It’s already been nearly a month since Donaldson last saw action in a big league game. He’s been on the disabled list twice this season, with the other stint coming due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder. Obviously, that’s not how Donaldson hoped his contract season would play out — especially not after a monster finish to the 2017 season in which he hit .302/.410/.698 in August and September to close out the 2017 season, homering 22 times in 227 plate appearances along the way.
The 32-year-old Donaldson has been limited to just 159 plate appearances so far in 2018, hitting at a .234/.333/.423 pace with five homers. That combination of solid on-base skills and useful power numbers (.190 ISO) isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s nowhere near the lofty standards that the 2015 AL MVP has established for himself since breaking out as one of the league’s best all-around players back in 2013. As MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes noted on the latest edition of MLBTR’s 2018-19 Free Agent Power Rankings, Donaldson’s injury troubles could be significantly diminishing his earning power in free agency; Donaldson ranked fourth on the first edition of the list but fell to eighth on this month’s update back on June 7.
There is, of course, still time for Donaldson to return and rebuild some of his stock. But at 33 years of age this winter and with an absence that could now approach two months for his current calf injury, Donaldson will have a fairly big hole out which to dig himself, and his reps at MVP Sports will have some work to do in convincing interested teams that his injuries come with minimal changes of lingering into 2019 and beyond.
As for the Blue Jays, the setback Donaldson is especially problematic given their status as sellers at this summer’s non-waiver deadline. Even in a best-case scenario, Donaldson would have minimal time to return and showcase his health prior to the non-waiver trade deadline. Perhaps his sizable $23MM salary for the 2018 season would allow him to clear revocable trade waivers and be marketed in August, but there’s no denying that his value on the trade market has taken a substantial hit and robbed the Jays of some opportunity to acquire meaningful prospect capital in exchange for the final few months of control over Donaldson.
While many fans will wonder whether this setback could impact the timeline of uber-prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr., it’s worth reminding that Guerrero himself hasn’t played since June 6 due to a strained patellar tendon in his left knee. He was slated to be evaluated four weeks after sustaining his own injury, and the Jays will presumably want to get him some reps in minor league games before even considering a promotion to the Majors.
Quick poll question. When it’s all said and done, how much money does Josh Donaldson get — assume one year deal.
I’d just say he accepts QO
Pillow contract. 1 year, $12 mil, $20 MM mutual option for year 2.
I Like CubsFanForLife’s guess, best.
QO will be $18M+ this year, after barely touching 18 last year. $12M sounds just about right, CubsFanForLife. Maybe $10M with $2M buyout on $20M Mutual option?
Just curious, because he’s shown MVP talent. He Just can’t stay healthy.
The buyout sounds right. Guess we’ll have to revisit our predictions when JD signs!
Boy Shatkins sure missed the boat moving JD in the offseason when he had some decent trade value. Now they’ll be lucky to get a free beer and hot dog voucher….ouch.
The Jays had no quality trade offers for Donaldson in the offseason. Only the Cardinals made an offer & the Cards weren’t willing to give up any good prospects or players. They wanted the Jays to give him away
Can you blame them? Can’t risk good prospects on a player that breaks down a lot
Bet the jays wish they would have now.
He’s another broken down guy…. I’ve always liked Donaldson but geez he can’t stay on the field. I wanted the Cards to get him but now it seems like more of the same for the Cards.
Cardinals could have traded Reyes for him. Smh
Reyes was, and never should have been, on the table.
Josh might be the 2018 version of Mike Moustakas.
Assuming he comes back and shows a little form, I doubt that. Moose and him are completely different hitters and players. If he heads into the offseason like this though, he’ll have trouble like Moose finding a long term deal.
What a shame for him as he’s so talented and might never get his big payday. I hope he signs a one year make good deal with Orioles.
Donaldson is starting to have a David Wright career path
That is a good comparison…. only I think Wright might be a little more oft injured.
It was a gamble for Toronto to not trade him in the offseason. Looks like they lost out on that one.
Not really. Worst case is he is QO’d next year and they get a supplemental pick. Darn.
Or he signs and realistically plays well offensively.
Trading him for some solid MLBers wouldn’t have helped the Jays any more than that.
I really doubt at this point that he’s turning down a QO. I don’t think 18 million for a year of him is a great deal at this point
I agree. He accepts a QO without a second thought.
It was a stupid decision not to trade Donaldson. Many in these pages were calling for it. They bascially announced that they were not going to trade him so they only got two decent offers, one from the Cards and a much better offer from another club.
Time to fire Atkins for that stupid decision.
They should have announced he was available last year and created a bidding war.
Should have traded him at last years deadline when he was healthy and playing well. This is precisely the reason so many were calling for a trade last year, to avoid this predictable situation from ever happening.
There were no good offers for Donaldson at all in the off-season. The Cardinals offer was awful. To call it decent is an insult. They only offered long shot prospects who were in the lower levels of the minors. The Jays needed a quality arm in return. That wasn’t included in any offers. I don’t blame Atkins for not making a bad deal in the off-season. Now, you can argue that Atkins should’ve made him available at the trade deadline. Then, he may have gotten a good return for Donaldson
Leverage was lost when Atkins tipped his hand. Ricciardi’esque. It was a half-hearted effort on the Jays part. Now the best-case scenario is to QO and re-sign him. Deal Smoak or Morales in the offseason. No excuses.
This is why you take a gamble with a player of his magnitude and hold on to him to try and get a better package. The Jays thinking was that they were going to compete again this year but that was overreaching. They should deal Smoak whom can land them some good prospects as well as deal Happ.
Maybe Donaldson needs to get away from that stadium in Toronto he would have made so much sense to have been traded to Phillies,Braves or Cardinals at the time.
This happens to a lot of GM’s where they hold off on a player far too long expecting more especially with a player that is a Question mark Health wise year in and year out.
The Mets are in this same predicament what to do with their two aces they should trade deGrom and make the best trade that will help that awful club no matter whom the team is whether its in the division or cross city like the Yankees.
Royals are another team that thought they could compete and had a chance in the winter to trade Duffy whom has been awful this year but was pretty good the last two years.
He’ll get a “I probably should take this” type deal from AA over in Atlanta anyway. Further, the move will be decried by Braves Nation for the life of the deal.
If JD can play 3B. Arm and calf issues put that in-jeopardy. Otherwise I’d agree with ya.
Shame. The Jays have 2 guys now (Donaldson and Tulo) who had HOF-caliber talent but couldn’t stay healthy once they passed age 30. A little luck and this team could’ve still been competitive.