The Rangers are making “an aggressive push” to strike an early deal with free-agent third baseman Josh Donaldson, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports (on Twitter). Donaldson still hasn’t even had to give the Braves a formal decision on his $17.8MM qualifying offer — though he’ll surely reject it by tomorrow’s deadline. A deal of this significance in mid-November is of the utmost rarity in today’s free-agent climate. However, it’s worth pointing out that Donaldson signed his one-year deal with the Braves in late November last year, so there’s some precedent for him preferring a rather short stay on the open market.
Third base is a clear area of need for the Rangers, as young Nick Solak is likely the top option at the hot corner as things are currently constructed in Arlington. Texas certainly has the funds to reel in a free agent of Donaldson’s caliber after scaling back on payroll last winter; the Rangers have previously seen their payroll climb as high as $165MM on Opening Day 2017, but they currently project to check in around $115MM. As MLBTR’s Jeff Todd pointed out in previewing the Rangers’ offseason, a match between Donaldson and Texas seems perfectly plausible and would bear some similarity to the Rangers’ run with Adrian Beltre in his mid- to late-30s.
As we detailed at MLBTR this week, signing Donaldson on the heels of a qualifying offer would cost the Rangers their second-highest draft selection next summer as well as $500K of their 2020-21 international signing bonus. Donaldson, who hit .259/.371/.521 with 37 home runs and plus defense at third base with the Braves in 2019, ranked fifth on MLBTR’s list of the offseason’s Top 50 free agents (where we predicted a three-year, $75MM deal with Texas).
The Rangers flirted with Wild Card contention in 2019 before fading late in the season and have given every indication to this point that they plan to act aggressively in advance of their move into a new stadium in 2020. General manager and president of baseball operations Jon Daniels plainly stated this week that he intended to look into top-tier free agents, so an earnest pursuit of Donaldson could be the first of many such free-agent endeavors for Texas over the next several months.
Donaldson has already drawn interest from the Dodgers, Phillies, Nationals (who likely view him as a fallback to Anthony Rendon) and Braves in the early stages of free agency. The Braves, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link), have been allowing Donaldson to shop around with other clubs before engaging in their own discussion of a multi-year pact.
My contest pick, I like it. 3/80 or 4/100 gets it done.
I was gonna put him there but I thought Rendon would go back home to Texas and Donaldson would replace him. We’ll see how this turns out.
Agree with 4/$100 think demand for him as much less commitment than Rendon will push it there.
He would be oldest player to get nine figure deal I think?
I agree I think he’ll get a 4 year offer from at least one team. 4/$100-$104M
Leave him alone he is a brave
Mine as well. Everything’s coming up Milhouse.
A Donaldson signing would fit nicely in the Ranger budget. Still can hit with average and power plus above average third base defense. Just makes sense. Rather have Rendon, but he is just way too expensive.
Makes sense. It’s where I think he’d land. Rendon would be logical considering he’s from Texas, but cost makes this the better bet.
the competition between the Rangers and Angels for 3rd place in the AL west is intensifying.
Geek!
If they just spent another 500$ M this offseason they might could even compete for 4th/3rd place in the NL East with NY and Philly!
…”they might could even compete for 4th/3rd place…..”
Stupid is as stupid does!!
Read what you posted, gather your thoughts, then post an intelligent comment. Thanks
Rent Free
Ugh. That might have been funny, even witty, if worded properly. Instead you just came across as being a simpleton. Nice try though.
“Might could”…you must be from the south as that is a common southern expression. Unfortunately it feeds southern stereotypes.
Good fit for the Phillies but not for more then 2 years. This would allow a little more time for Bohm to mature and fine tune his game at third before coming up and being the future at this position. Anything more then 2 years should be a pass.
Pretty sure anything for fewer than three years is a hard pass for Donaldson, too.
You think Bohm will be ready in two years?
Bohm will be 25 and a half years old at the start of the 2022 season.
.
Phillies farm.
After a seven year rebuild.
I don’t know anything about Bohm, but Donaldson was 27 when he played his first full season.
Bohm is ready right now. He will be playing 1st or 3rd no later than June.
…$25M/yr for 4 yrs with options? Injuries and age are working against him..although with an AL team he can rest his legs and DH
Donaldson is on record saying he completely changed his diet and exercise in 2019, and that it greatly improved his lower half. He really showed no signs of issues for Atlanta.
I wish Atlanta would resign him, personally.
well what else is he gonna say in a walk year lol
Gary Sheffield bragged about working out with Barry Bonds and then had the best year of his career.
Barry could have introduced him to the “flaxseed oil.”
If MLB were constructed rationally, this would be the perfect situation for an incentive, performance oriented contract. The guy is not 28 or even 30, he has had injury issues, he cannot be counted upon to repeat (or exceed) last year’s performance. He deserves a base of maybe $15MM with another $15MM of incentives. If he’s injured or falls on his face, presumably due to the incursion of age, he gets the $15MM or something toward that end of the scale. If he matches last year’s performance, he can earn $24/$25MM. If he significantly surpasses last year’s performance, he can earn upwards of $30MM. That’s a deal that would be fair, equitable and make sense. What he’ll get, however, won’t be fair or equitable and won’t make sense, and whichever team does that deal will be greatly exposed to paying him far more than he will actually “earn” or deserve, as is the case with multi-year deals with most mid-30’s players, especially those with recent histories of significant injury. I’m not saying that an inequitable outcome over the course of his forthcoming deal will definitely happen; I’m saying that it has a material probability of happening. Because of the MLBPA, which I strongly support in most respects, equitable arrangements will never happen and baseball will be forever warped, twisted and crippled by it.
I agree and well said. Baseball and the fans are suffering from the unbalanced pay scale with the premier player all the way down to the elite minor leaguer. Baseball decision makers have to come to their senses and be truthful with Owners true profits, payroll that is earned for the superstar, fair pay for the middle tier major league player and lastly fair pay for the minor league players.
First – please detail for us how the fans are suffering.
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This all sounds well and good. Same as expecting countries all over the world being nice to one another and instituting democracies and freedom for all people.
The reality is this…….
Billy Beane is revered here – both with MLBTR writers and readers – as a trailblazer for popularizing the use of analytics. A legendary figure according to many. He had a movie of his life done – that capped it.
So what was Moneyball all about? Dealing with a small market budget by finding players that will produce at a similar lever then other players for far less money. Arbitraging is what value investors in the stock market have called it since John Templeton started the practice during the Great Depression years.
All MLB front offices are filled with college graduates – many with advanced degrees – that spend a good part of every day (and night) querying databases to find candidates for their team to acquire. While others – including coaches – are busy looking at high-tech broken-down video of players the past season or four, to find something that can be adjusted in a players game to get them to produce at a level far higher then their current salary. If a candidate can be found that fits both criteria, an FO head such as a Brian Cashman will go out and acquire an Urshela or a Voit.
So with most, if not all teams doing this – including the large payroll Yankees, Astros, Dodgers, Red Sox and Nationals – how exactly does the Players Union show up and demand that teams pay full price for a player when they can get a guy wholesale and fix him? And what is the guarantee that if they pay full price on a multi-year contract that they’ll get the production they thought they’d get when a contract was signed? I’ve been watching since the Players Union was formed, and have yet to see them give a team a make-good when the expected/predicted result was not as forecast (as say, TV and radio networks give make-goods to advertisers when the amount of expected viewers/listeners do not tune in).
We’re at the inevitable rubber hits the road position between powerful employee unions and their employers. It’s bad enough that the Union expects employees to be paid at a fixed rate based on certain criteria (i.e. Arbitration), but in this case we’re dealing with individuals that are a part of a team sport. Already statistics play too large a role in a players salary. If salaries are going to be totally mandated by statistics and individual teams are required to hire a certain amount of players and pay them a certain salary – then players will totally play for their individual stats and not for their manager and team, and teams will be forced to hire players they don’t want and pay them more then those players are worth to the team. Not the best thing to do in what is supposed to be a competitive sport, featuring teams that take in radically different amounts of revenue.
Translation:
The Rangers are giving Donaldson a 1-year contract worth $5.7 million, only to trade him in August.
Lmao!!!
ikr
it’s worth pointing out that Donaldson signed his one-year deal with the Braves in late November last year, so there’s some precedent for him preferring a rather short stay on the open market.
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It’s hardly a precedent. He took one year because he was injured.
IRT his contract, anything more than two years I think will disappoint. He was injured in both 2017 & 2018, and will start next season at age 34.
That is the definition of Precedent.
He took a pillow contract to reestablish value. Value is reestablished. Its only precedent if you dont what youre talking about and ignore how the situation is different. He also wanted to play for Braves his whole life and had ties with AA or he might never have taken the first one. Odds are he knew he was going there before the offseason officially started.
Context matters people, come on.
Not really. It is only a precedent if circumstances are the same. Getting lost and accidentally walking into GCT is not the same thing as saying that you like visiting GCT.
Makes little sense for the rangers since they sink and have so many holes all over the roster.
But when you have holes, isn’t this how they get filled?
if the Rangers are offering a 3 year deal the Braves should match it. But if they’re willing to go 4 or 5 years, then thank you Donaldson, take your umbrella to Texas.
Umbrella? What, is he Mary Poppins? 🙂
So a team with no chance of competing, is pushing hard to buy a 75$M+ hood ornament for their new stadium they got and didn’t need. They would have to over pay him alot to lose for the rest of his career, because Donaldson has never hidden the fact he has no interest playing on losing teams anymore. But I guess enough money can turn a lose-lose situation into a win for him at least.
Baseballs getting depressing.
Hey it’s hard being .500 team. I agree I wish the Rangers would just commit to a rebuild but that won’t happen with the opening of a new stadium.
really hate when the non astros/yankees/dodgers use their billions of dollars to fill out their rosters. and take some of that money offered by one of the 20 probably not this years? truly disgusting
/s
Your comments are getting depressing.
Well I suppose we will see, if Donaldson does sign with Texas does that mean that he is greedy? Or that you’re a lousy baseball fan who can’t believe a midmarket team is closer to competing than he thinks.
Donaldson is in a sweet spot right now, he is producing and won’t require a long term contract. Teams get the best of both worlds. That means top demand and large dollars.
From what we hear he’s looking for a 3-4 year contract. For a 34-year old, especially one with a significant history of injury, that’s a long-term contract.
Donaldson would rake in Arlington!
We have no idea how the new stadium will play.
What about Joey Gallo, isn’t 3B his primary position? What kind of defender is he?
Gallo hasn’t played 3B since 2017, and even then, it didn’t go well. On the other hand, he’s been solid in the outfield, so I imagine that will be where he stays.
Yeah he’s said that 3B is out of the question. Let’s just let the boy play corner OF and hit.
They will get one of the big three 3b – Rendon, Donaldson, or Moustakas.
LOL!
“Big Three”
In terms of free agent 3b…ya
Or maybe you found the word play amusing…?
Guess that would help, but still lots of help needed
DH Choo – hey someone who gets on base!
SS Andrus by default – that OBP has really dropped off
3B Donaldson
CF Gallo
LF Calhoun…finally
2B Odor because of that contract
RF Mazara I guess
1B Someone other than Santana/Guzman
C Someone not on the roster right now
Would have been better off making Preller their GM at three times what the Padres are paying him.
Solak is better than Odor…
Maybe there’s some analytical argument for signing Donaldson, but am I the only person that thinks a 3/75 or 4/100 contract for him is an insanely wild overpay?
I doubt he gets through one season playing more than 120 games, let alone 3 or 4.
I see him as a 1/20 or 2/37.5 player, but 3 or 4 years? Holy cow. Maybe I’m just missing something really huge.
I’d much rather sign Moustakas to a similar term, but at probably 30% to 50% the AAV.
I think it is one of many FAs that will disappoint.
Should give it there best to fill the seats at the new stadium.
Donaldson was outstanding for my boys and I agree the Braves should match a 3 year deal. It goes to 4 years the Braves vcd should say Thank You & move to Moustakis on a 2 year deal for 20 million & be thrilled about it. Wouldn’bother me seeing the Braves asking the Cubs about what it would take to get Wilson Contreras. Do you guys have any trade options you’d like to share? Oh another thing to ask you, do you guys think it’s a done deal that Bumgardner signing a possible 2 year deal with the Braves? Do the Braves roll a platoon in LF with Duvall/Markakis? Finally, if Moustakis and Bumgardner is signed, would the Braves be finished adding anymore “sticks” if the could pull a trade off for Wilson Contreras?
No one is giving this guy 100 mil
I’m shocked the Braves gave him so much money to sign for 2019 and even more shocked they got their money’s worth!
Why? There’s a misconception that ATL doesn’t spend, but they do, but very calculated. The last 2 offseasons there hasn’t been the combination of a free agent that perfectly fits the team at the price/years they were comfortable at going. Now with having the financial room, the young foundation of a playoff team with experience, I wouldn’t be surprised to see further spending, as long as they aren’t deferring money too far into the future. In the last 2 seasons, AA used the ability to add expiring deals into the season’s budget as a way of upgrading the current team without unloading premium prospects, not unlike adding Melancon and paying SF quite a bit on his deal.
In Donaldson’s case, AA/Donaldson have a rich history together which provided comfort on top of the need, allowing Donaldson to return back home to the south, and ATL didn’t have to give up prospects or compensatory draft picks or future years/dollars to get him. Though it was a risk, I’m sure AA felt good about his chances of limiting the risk.
Knowing how the Braves operate if they feel they can land Moustakes for less they will let Donaldson leave. Actually Moustakas might put up equal power numbers in Atlanta as is a good third baseman with a fine arm.
Catching and pitching is probably the priority and the Braves want to cover as many soft spots as they can without spending big on any one player.
They’re clearly leveraging Rendon here. Texas teams stay playing dirty. Fling both them into Portland and Montreal.
No Orlando.
You already have 2 teams to not watch in the state. Please clear that state out of baseball teams.
I bet Donaldson has a fast car. He can probably evade an aggressive pursuit.
Josh Donaldson has become very popular. Lots of teams looking for a 3B who won’t cost as much as Anthony Rendon.
Josh Donaldson is not a good fit in Texas. It would be a bad choce for a rebuilding team.