DUNEDIN, Fla. – Josh Donaldson sat down with sportsnet.ca just before camp broke to discuss the 2016 season, evolving as a player, competitive windows and a whole lot more.
Part 1 of the interview focused on his approach at the plate and MVP season. Here’s part 2…
In Oakland, you dealt with constant roster turnover for business reasons. What’s your approach to the team’s big picture given the focus on 2016 with 10 pending free agents, given that you’re under club control through 2018?
“Sometimes you do (look at the big picture), but our job as players is not to worry about next year, our job as players is to worry about this year, and go out there and win. That’s just the fact of the matter. We want to win, and we want to win now. It’s not, hey, we hope we do it this year. No. We’re going to win now.
“When it’s next year, we’ll worry about that, because this is the simple fact of baseball and the major-league business: they’re always trying to replace you as a player, they’re always trying to get cheaper, and at the end of the day, you have to go out there and perform. Part of performing is going out there and winning games.”
Can the possibility of a large number of players leaving after the season make it easier or more difficult to perform?
“We have guys in the clubhouse who are going to be released or sent down. I tell everybody, ‘Hey, you’ve got to stay focused, and you’ve got to do what’s best for yourself.’ And that would be the same advice that I would offer somebody that might not be here after next year, because this game is a business.
“At the same time, when you’re in this clubhouse, you’re going to be a part of it, whether you want to or not. Being a part of a clubhouse is making sure your mind, energy and attention is focused on winning and not anything else because winning is the most important thing. It’s not me putting up another MVP, it’s not any of that, it’s going out there and winning division titles that it’s all about.”
I’d say that across work environments, there’s the possibility of distractions caused by the inherent tension between individual goals and an organization’s goals, causing people to forget collective success is good for everyone. Can that be difficult to learn?
“Distractions for me are things that you allow to happen. If you don’t allow distractions to happen, there are no distractions. I know I’m defining that with the same word, but you allow things to distract you. If you don’t allow those things to happen, that’s not a problem.”
How did you learn to compartmentalize things?
“I’ve had to deal with that from a very young age to now. I’ve had to make sure to set my goals to what I wanted out of life, to at the end of the day what was really important. That’s what you have to focus on. I came from a small town, like 13,000 people. This is not a sob story, I had people all the time tell me, ‘Hey, you’re not big enough to do this, you’re not smart enough to do this, you’re not athletic enough to get scholarships.’
“But I had my mom on my life, I had family members in my life, and I had coaches in my life that believed in me. They’d say, ‘Hey, if you do this, if you work harder than other people, at the end of the day, you’re going to get what you want. And if you don’t, that’s OK, too, because at least you can look yourself in the mirror and say you gave it everything you had. Maybe that’s not right for you, maybe it’s something else.’ I feel if I wasn’t a baseball player, I won’t say what I would be because I don’t know, I feel I would be successful at it because it’s a mindset, it’s a focus.”
Given all the obstacles you’ve overcome, did you allow yourself in the off-season to really savour the fact that you were named American League MVP?
“There were a few moments, there were a few moments. I got to have a lot of fun this off-season as far as being able to partake in certain things, playing at Pebble Beach, playing a golf round with Jason Dufner, I had Justin Timberlake there and Alfonso Ribeiro who played Carlton on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, I’m like, ‘This is legit.’ And I’m talking to my boy and it’s like, these guys are excited that I’m here, as well. I don’t look at it that way – I’m excited to meet them.
“There were several celebrities who sought after me and that was different. These guys were coming up to me and telling me my stats and I was like, ‘You were paying attention? I wouldn’t think such and such would be paying attention to what Toronto was doing.’”
So having success in Toronto was different than having success in Oakland?
“In some ways, but I’m not going to talk bad about Oakland, because they gave me a great opportunity. Because I finished fourth and eighth (in MVP voting), nobody remembers who comes in second. When you win an award people remember that and people are excited about that. I don’t know what it would have been like if I’d won one in Oakland versus winning one in Toronto.
“But the fact is Toronto, it’s not just Toronto, it’s really Canada, and you saw that in the all-star vote. At the same time, I went out and won an award and we had some pretty stellar playoff games, as well. People remember that kind of stuff.”
How would you describe your emotions from Game 5 of the American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers?
“Crazy, just how everything unfolded, how many ups and downs and everything, that was really a grind of a series, one of the most grueling series I’ve ever been a part of. How that seventh inning unfolded – you see movies and books about that kind of thing. I wish we could have had a heartrate monitor to check my heartrate because when they play happened with Russell (Martin), it went through the roof because of anger, you don’t want to lose a game that way, especially with how that series went. They made the three errors and I ended up having a jam shot, it ended up a fielder’s choice, that ended up tying the game, but I was mad about that because I got jammed when we tied the game up, that was important.
“Then when Bats ended up coming through with the homer, it was epic, just one of those epic series and is something you won’t forget. At the same time, we didn’t get to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish and that’s winning the World Series. We feel like we have the capability to do that this year and it’s been a big focus and our first goal is to win the division again. This is where it starts.”
Did you have some questions about the 2016 team that were answered by what you saw in camp?
“I saw what they were doing in the off-season and it’s not even close with the amount of depth we have on the starting pitching side and in the bullpen side (compared to last spring), not just here but also with some guys that will go to triple-A and give us insurance policies over the course of the year. We’re going to need guys, there are going to be injuries, you saw that last season. I felt like last season, we were trying to piece five men together to go out there and start, and then piece a bullpen together. We had two 20-year-olds, one of them pans out, one of them gets traded. Jeff Francis, who retired, he was giving us everything he had.
“Now you look at the bullpen, Gavin Floyd looks great, you’ve got Jesse Chavez who can be a swingman, I love him as a starter, he can be a guy who starts at some point. There aren’t as many question marks, I feel like, and that’s good. Now we have Tulo (Troy Tulowitzki) for an entire season, I’m excited to see what he’s going to do for a full year, and I believe his best years are still in front of him.”
You touched on a few things there, but what are some things about this team that most lead you to have confidence in its chances this year?
“Staying healthy is going to be the biggest factor, and that’s with any team. What separates our team a little bit from other teams is we have bona-fide, year-in and year-out superstar-type players – Edwin, Bau, Tulo, Martin, myself I believe. (Marcus) Stroman could be that guy. He’s going to have to do it for a full season, we haven’t seen that yet, I don’t doubt him for one second, he can be that guy, but he’s got to prove to people that he can. He knows that and he wants to be that. These are really good players in here, talented guys, health is going to be the biggest issue. If we can stay healthy, we feel like we have the team to beat.”
