Reviewing the Josh Donaldson Trade

[jmlease1]

I'd say the Donaldson trade was a net win for the Twins: they got out from under a contract that wasn't a fit for where they were going and away from a player that was increasingly burdensome in the clubhouse and less effective on the field. That's really important for a team with greater payroll constraints. IKF is a decent enough utility guy, but not a significant contributor; the twins got as much value back from Gio Urshela who had a very nice year for the Twins. Sanchez was better than advertised behind the plate but never found his swing again. In just pure baseball value on the field, the Yankees did a bit better when you look at last season's production, but the contract impacts tilt it towards the Twins.

I was a big Rortvedt booster but he's been totally unimpactful in that deal.

In the end, trading Donaldson is definitely a net positive for the Twins and overall I think the Yankees might prefer a do-over, even if they managed to get ok production out of Donaldson and IKF collectively last season.

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, KirbyDome89 said:

Anything to actually substantiate this, or are we just reviving a tiresome talking point from last season? 

You mean like numbers? There was 52M ways to substantiate it in that case.

[KirbyDome89]

2 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

You mean like numbers? There was 52M ways to substantiate it in that case.

You know what the actual implication was....

[Fire Dan Gladden]

1 hour ago, KirbyDome89 said:

Anything to actually substantiate this, or are we just reviving a tiresome talking point from last season? 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Torontobluejays/comments/pqu2kl/why_is_josh_donaldson_considered_a_locker_room/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10849549/Yankees-Aaron-Judge-slams-teammate-Josh-Donaldson-Jackie-Robinson-remarks-Tim-Anderson.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59JPOTMbZ0E&t=8s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EIIsFTMpmY

 

That took about 60 seconds.  I am not going to use the phrase clubhouse cancer, but he does not exactly work himself into the good graces of his teammates.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

2 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

The Twins never traded for Donaldson.  They just went to the FA store and bought him.

You are correct. Thanks for pointing out my careless mistake.  

[nicksaviking]

4 minutes ago, KirbyDome89 said:

You know what the actual implication was....

Why would it matter when getting rid of him was a sound financial decision anyway?

[KirbyDome89]

18 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Why would it matter when getting rid of him was a sound financial decision anyway?

Why make **** up if you can justify the move on a financial basis? 

[KirbyDome89]

28 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Torontobluejays/comments/pqu2kl/why_is_josh_donaldson_considered_a_locker_room/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10849549/Yankees-Aaron-Judge-slams-teammate-Josh-Donaldson-Jackie-Robinson-remarks-Tim-Anderson.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59JPOTMbZ0E&t=8s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EIIsFTMpmY

 

That took about 60 seconds.  I am not going to use the phrase clubhouse cancer, but he does not exactly work himself into the good graces of his teammates.

We're all familiar with his on field antics.

Personally I couldn't stand the guy pre or post his MN tenure, but if you're going to label him cancer adjacent, i.e. actively harmful in the clubhouse during his time with the Twins, then actually give me something Twins related.  

[nicksaviking]

13 minutes ago, KirbyDome89 said:

We're all familiar with his on field antics.

Personally I couldn't stand the guy pre or post his MN tenure, but if you're going to label him cancer adjacent, i.e. actively harmful in the clubhouse during his time with the Twins, then actually give me something Twins related.  

He didn't label him a cancer, nor did he comment on his behavior with the Twins, you're making more attributions about his ambitions than he did about Donaldson's.

4 hours ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

At the time, the Donaldson signing was optimistic.  The Twins making a play on an high level player at a position of need.  Injuries really robbed the Twins of getting true value out of him as a player, though he was very effective when he did play.

Donaldson's clubhouse woes are well documented.  The addition by subtraction with Donaldson was very real.  Trading Donaldson allowed the Twins some financial flexibility which tipped the dominoes to a handful of moves.  I wouldn't really call this a win in the traditional sense, but I do think the signing and then moving of Donaldson opened the door for us to make power play moves like Grey and Correa. 

*******Moderator Note**************

I know where you want to drag this tangent but it is not going there. This thread will stay on topic or we'll be removing posts.

[Tyler from Oregon]

The Twins won this trade by no longer having to deal with Josh Donaldson.

[mikelink45]

In terms of traded players we lost.  No one made it, and Donaldson did play.  Correa is a separate issue.  The Twins contracts are their choice.  They could have had both if they wanted.  I am glad to be rid of Donaldson, but I do not consider dumping a bad contract to be a big victory. 

[JoeCool]

This was a massive Twins win and it shows in our record against the Yankees in 2023 which is respectable.  

We freed up our payroll and put some underperforming contracts into the Yankees payroll and lineup.  

[Major League Ready]

20 hours ago, saviking said:

Had we never signed Donaldson in the first place we would have had the money to sign Correa anyway. And if we hadn't signed Donaldson we would still have Garver an Rortvet instead of a 19 old reliever. 

So the only problem was signing Donaldson in the first place

Really easy to have hindsight.  Fans here forget about all the players they wanted sign who turn out to be disasters.  I remember posts absolutely blasting the front office for not signing Madison Bumgarner.  Lots of people wanted Patrick Corbin and Johnny Cueto.  I remember a couple people all-in on Jacoby Ellsbury.   Even Berrios looks like a very questionable sign at this point and there was endless criticism that the front office was not "serious " about winning and absolutely brain dead for letting Berrios go.  The lists goes on and on so let's remember how many deals we all support that turn out to be horrible and harmful long-term.  Every front office makes these mistakes.  In this case they had the good sense to get out of it and there are still people that still don't recognize that it was a great trade to get out of the contract.

[Squirrel]

I was one who wanted to sign Donaldson and was glad they did. At the time, I think it was a good move and a good signing. The team needed an injection of energy and fight I thought Donaldson could bring. It didn’t quite gel, for whatever reason I’m not going to assume because I didn’t hear of anything while he was with the Twins. And at the time of the trade, I was very unsure of what we gave up and what we got in return. Where I stand now is I’m still glad they signed him, sorry it didn’t work out, but glad they moved on. We are currently, imo, in a better place without him.

[rwilfong86]

Biggest addition by subtraction move in recent memory.