Jays should not let Donaldson go
Franchise should avoid repeat earlier mistake of letting Alomar walk into free agency
All these years later, Gord Ash regrets how it ended with Roberto Alomar in Toronto. Looking back, he wishes he had acted differently. It’s easy to say that 22 years later.
Ash was stubborn in the summer of 1995. Alomar was stubborn. A hotheaded general manager and a hotheaded all-star is hardly a recipe for contractual bliss. Instead, Ash and Alomar couldn’t agree on terms, dollars or the direction in which the Blue Jays were heading.
“It didn’t end well,” Ash said yesterday. And just like that, the best player in Blue Jays history was gone.
Josh Donaldson may be the second best player in Blue Jays history. His contract is up after next season. The trade deadline is next week. The Blue Jays need help just about everywhere, which leads to the obvious discussion: What to do with Donaldson, this off-season, next year and the year after that?
The Jays made the mistake years ago with Alomar, the Hall of Fame second baseman. They knew that all then and all these years later. There is no need to make the same mistake with the gem Alex Anthopoulos stole from the Oakland A’s.
Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins, the president-general manager pair who finish each other’s sentences, shouldn’t trade Donaldson now or next year. What they should do is sign him — for whatever it costs, for whatever term is necessary. It’s like Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello says about almost every free agent signing — too much term, too many dollars. It’s the cost of doing business in the big leagues.
These kind of sensational players only come around twice, three times, in a 40-year history of a franchise. The A’s mistakenly traded Donaldson to Toronto after being pestered into it: all the A’s have managed since the deal was made is have the worst cumulative record in the American League. You don’t recover from those kind of losses.
The Jays never really recovered from letting Alomar walk into free agency. And you can’t repeat history here. What you’ll hear from the screamers — and it’s baseball so there is always somebody screaming about some item of insignificance — is Donaldson is no kid. He turns 32 in December. His best days are behind him. His body is breaking down. His legs are a mess. He makes too many errors. Yada yada yada.
A five-year deal would have him tied to the Jays until the playing age of 37. That would be a concern for all kinds of players, if not for the history of the greatest third basemen in baseball. The greatest I’ve ever seen.
George Brett, who played to the age of 40, won a batting title at 37.
Mike Schmidt played until he was 39, won an MVP at 36. All he did at 37 was hit 35 home runs and knock in 113 runs. Brooks Robinson played to the age of 40: At 37,Robinson was invited to his 15th straight and final all-star game.
Chipper Jones, like Robinson, played to 40. At 36, he led the National League in batting with a ridiculous average of .364 and an equally ridiculous on base percentage of .470.
And Adrian Beltre, who should be Cooperstown bound one day, is still going strong with the Texas Rangers at the age of 38. All Beltre did at 37 was hit 32 homers and knock in more than 100 runs and end up with an OPS of .879. That’s my personal Top 5.
“I look at the character of those players, it’s impressive to me to see what they’ve done,” said Donaldson. He doesn’t see any reason why he can’t be effective now and for years to come.
He just plays. There is a lot of this season still to play. It has been Donaldson’s worst big league season and his numbers, both offensively and defensively, seem completely out of whack. But no one in the Jays organization sees this as anything but a blip — an unlikely one-off.
In fairness, in this season of much despair, everything about the Blue Jays should be in play, all the possibilities, everything but dealing away your franchise players.
The Jays won two World Series with Alomar. They have won none since. They have been to the post-season twice with Donaldson. There’s no reason to find out what it’s like to be without him.