TORONTO – All the statistics, all the obvious things about Josh Donaldson’s 2015 season scream out MVP. Sure, there’s a legitimate debate over whether the Toronto Blue Jays third baseman or Los Angeles Angels centre-fielder Mike Trout put up bigger numbers, but let’s be clear, he’s well beyond worthy by those measures alone.
Still, in some ways it’s all the other elements he brought to the table, the stuff that can’t be counted by WAR, WPA, wRC, RE24 or any other metric, no matter how advanced, that really made him deserving of the American League Most Valuable Player Award he received Thursday night in voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
| Stat | Josh Donaldson | Mike Trout |
|---|---|---|
| AVG/OBP/SLG | .297/.371/.568 | .299/.402/.590 |
| H | 184 | 172 |
| 2B | 41 | 32 |
| 3B | 2 | 6 |
| HR | 41 | 41 |
| RBI | 123 | 90 |
| R | 122 | 104 |
Donaldson didn’t just help transform the Blue Jays from a very good offensive club to a stupidly dominant one, he was also instrumental in transforming the team’s personality. Along with fellow newcomers Russell Martin, and later Troy Tulowitzki, and in tandem with mainstays Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Mark Buehrle and R.A. Dickey, the players built a system of accountability, a system of trust that to some degree lacked in previous seasons.
Yes, the 2015 group was more talented, but talent only gets the job done if it’s harnessed in the right ways. Donaldson helped make sure that it was.
“He gave us that toughness we needed, and he was always pushing,” manager John Gibbons said via text Thursday night. “The right things come out of his mouth.”
A prime example of that came after a 6-5 loss to the Houston Astros on May 16, a fourth straight defeat and fifth in sixth outings, the second in a row courtesy of a bullpen implosion. After the game he told reporters: “This isn’t the try league, this is the get it done league. Eventually they’re going to find people who are going to get it done.”
For a team that was 17-21 at the time, on its way to a low point of 23-30 on June 2, the message was bang on.
“When we got swept in Houston, our team was scuffling and I really tried to bring to attention – and I said it to guys on our team and I said it in the media – that, hey, we’re not just going out there trying to win, we’re not going out there and hope that we do well,” Donaldson said during a conference call. “If you’re on this roster we expect you to win and we expect you to go out there and perform to the level of a major-league baseball player, and to have the attitude that we expect to beat you, and we’re going to beat you, and then after we win, we’re going to turn around the next day and beat you again. Once guys started seeing that about myself, and how I felt about it, and the way I was going out and playing each and every day, it put light on the situation and people took heed out of that notice.”
Now, any player can pop off to his teammates and the public, and generally be met by eye-rolls in the clubhouse. What made Donaldson’s messages effective is that he invested time building relationships with his teammates, understanding them, and that gave him the latitude to be outspoken when needed. And, first and foremost, he led by example, with play that was as determined and relentless as anyone’s on the Blue Jays. He never asked anyone to do more than he was doing himself.
“Early on, I was going to make it very obvious that I was going to be there for them to talk,” says Donaldson. “Midway through the season and on, guys made it a point to come if they had something they wanted to say to me. I’m not always the easiest guy to talk to a lot of times because I’m not always going to tell you what you want to hear, and I think that can be a good thing at times.
“Throughout a 162-game schedule, our focus can sometimes go in a different direction, and that’s why I feel like one of my jobs on our team is to make sure people are focused on the right things. If they’re not, I’m going to say it to them. Sometimes it’s not going to taken great right away but everybody on that team knows where I stand with each individual and they know deep down I care most about everyone that’s in that locker-room and I know they care about me, as well. That’s what makes a great team.”
Donaldson said that with the Oakland Athletics in 2014, he didn’t take on a similar leadership role quite the way he should have, particularly after some of the mid-season trades made in a playoff push changed the team’s mix. It might have been too much too soon for someone trying to repeat a strong 2013 and establish himself as a consistent MVP-calibre performer.
The stunning off-season trade to the Blue Jays – last Nov. 28 for Brett Lawrie, Kendall Graveman, Sean Nolin and prospect Franklin Barreto in former GM Alex Anthopoulos’ calling-card transaction – dropped Donaldson into a new environment and could have reset that process. But by the end of spring training he feels a comfort level developed between him and his new teammates, and the bond only grew from there.
“Really, you want to be able to show these guys the type of player you are during the regular season,” he says. “After the first walk-off homer against Atlanta (on April 18), that was when I felt like a part of the team. I felt throughout the year, and this might be a better question to ask some other guys on the team, I had a positive impact on a lot of guys in that clubhouse.
“I always try to have an open ear to everybody, whether it was positive or negative, and get people’s mind set back on what it needed to be focused on to go out there and play winning baseball. Winning the AL East was a huge goal for us and we were able to accomplish that.”
They wouldn’t have done it without Donaldson, whose performance has now been rewarded with the AL MVP, the Hank Aaron Award, a Silver Slugger and two Players Choice honours, and who gave the Blue Jays so much more value beyond the numbers.