Josh Donaldson was traded to the Indians last night. Not sure how I feel about it.
I have been a fan of Donaldson since he was drafted. I even wrote to him when he was in college. You can see the autograph I got above. Donaldson is also former MVP and was worth roughly 5 WAR as recently as 2017. So its not like he is a washed up player.
On the other hand, he has struggled all season with injuries and, for him to play regularly in the line-up the Indians will have to reconfigure the infield and move Jose Ramirez to second, bump Jason Kipnis into the outfield, and possibly start platooning Yonder Alonso. Worse, none of this solves what I think are the more pressing issues of a shaky bullpen and an outfield one injury away from being the same OF the Columbus Clippers ran with for a portion of the season.
Personally, I think he can recover his All-Star form, but I think he needs regular at-bats to do it. Seeing how the Indians juggle this should be interesting.
I really hope this works out. If it does he could be the spark that helps carry the Tribe deep into the playoffs. If not…I would rather not think about it.