DUNEDIN, Fla. — After drawing a walk in the first inning of Saturday’s 6-3 Toronto Blue Jays victory over the Detroit Tigers, Josh Donaldson has made only 16 plate appearances this spring. That’s among the lowest of any Blue Jays regular. Kendrys Morales has 28, Curtis Granderson’s got 26, Justin Smoak, 22.
There’s no hard and fast rule for this stuff. Every player’s a little bit different. Some want more, some want less. Donaldson is a three-time all-star and perennial MVP candidate, so it’s safe to say he’s got a pretty good handle on how many plate appearances he’d like to see prior to the beginning of the season.
So, with less than three weeks until opening day, would he prefer to have seen more than 16 to this point?
“I’d rather have zero,” Donaldson says. “To me, it’s good to get some work in here at spring training and stuff. But I could have 500 spring training at-bats — they really don’t equate to one game at-bat during the season.
“You can have as many at-bats as you want and then come to the season and not feel where you want to be. Really, it’s about getting in-season, in-game at-bats for me.”
It’s an intensity thing. A spring training game, played in front of around 4,000 senior citizens, doesn’t quite get the heart rate going like a regular season one, before tens of thousands in a big-league ballpark.
It’s a quality of competition thing, too. Pitchers aren’t quite at their best during spring training. Their stuffs not as sharp. Everyone’s working to get a feel for their pitches. No one’s revealing game plans. Pitchers haven’t gone over your video, over your scouting report, searching for holes in your swing to try and exploit.
“Everything’s different, in my opinion,” Donaldson says. “Pitcher intensity right now isn’t even close to where it normally is. Especially guys who are seasoned. Maybe for some of the younger guys, those at-bats are a little bit more real.
“But I remember I used to come in, hit .400 in spring training, and then I’d go and get to the regular season and I would have a couple hits for the month. So, it’s one of those deals where I don’t put too much stock into spring training at-bats. That’s just myself.”
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And who are we to argue with him? Donaldson’s one of the game’s premier hitters, a guy with a 147 wRC+ since 2013, the fifth-best mark in the game. A guy who’s hit .285/.387/.559 over the last three seasons in nearly 2,000 plate appearances. A guy who could’ve had a truly monster year in 2017 if not for a pair of calf injuries that sidelined him for a third of the season.
But about those injuries. It was certainly suspicious when Donaldson — who’s been battling right shoulder soreness this spring — was lifted from the game after only one plate appearance Saturday, while his fellow starters all stayed in for at least three trips to the plate. Surely everyone remembers his calf issues from last spring, and how they bled well into the regular season.
Turns out, Donaldson neglected to get enough fluids after his morning workout, and started cramping early in the game. A test conducted after he was lifted confirmed he was suffering from dehydration. He has a scheduled off-day Sunday, but expects to be good to go next week for all those plate appearances he doesn’t want.
And he says his shoulder is coming along, too. It’s kept him from playing the field at times, but Donaldson gives the sense his trimmed down schedule this spring is more precautionary than anything.
“My shoulder’s actually feeling really good as of late. It’s one of those things where every day its progressing in the right direction,” he says. “I feel good about it. It’s not something that I’m concerned about. I’ve been able to put in a lot of quality work this spring. That’s important for me. Last year, I didn’t really get to do that and I’m happy about it.”
Much of that work has come on the defensive side of the ball, a particular area of emphasis for Donaldson this year. He certainly wasn’t bad in the field in 2017, but he did take a slight step back from where he’s been as a third baseman in his career, as evidenced by his declining defensive runs saved and ultimate zone rating.
| DRS | UZR | UZR/150 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 20 | 15.5 | 13.3 |
| 2015 | 11 | 9.2 | 9.8 |
| 2016 | 2 | 4.2 | 5.7 |
| 2017 | 3 | -0.9 | -1.1 |
Donaldson would like to reverse those trends this season, which is where the lack of playing time this spring does become a factor. There’s no substitute for live balls off a bat during games. But Donaldson and the Blue Jays coaching staff have been finding other ways to get him the work he needs.
During batting practice, he’ll stand at third base and work on his reads as his teammates progress through rounds of hitting. Often, third base coach Luis Rivera will run Donaldson through a drill where balls are soft tossed and hit with a fungo bat in Donaldson’s direction, which lets him work on reading the ball off the bat and timing the hops the ball takes as it approaches him.
Donaldson keys in on his footwork and tries to adapt his movement based on any mistakes he’s making. He’ll experiment with his aggressiveness, trying to learn which types of balls he can charge in and get rather than laying back and letting them come to him.
“I’ve been able to incorporate some things into my practice routines that make it more game-like,” he says. “But there is something to be said for having some games on defence. It’s just about managing the workload that’s going into spring training, going into the season.”
To that end, Donaldson feels he’s doing everything he needs to have another strong season, and there’s no reason to doubt him. Just because you haven’t seen much of the work doesn’t mean the work’s not being done. We all know how good Donaldson is when healthy, how important he is to his team, and how crucial this year is for him as he heads towards free agency following the season. You can be sure he knows that, too.
“I feel great. I’ve been able to put a lot of work in this spring training,” he says. “Just the quality of work that I’m putting in right now has been very beneficial, in my opinion, to where it’s going to lead me for the regular season.”
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