Former Blue Jay and MVP Josh Donaldson announces retirement
Posted March 4, 2024 3:19 pm.
Last Updated March 4, 2024 3:49 pm.
Former Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson announced his retirement from professional baseball on Monday.
Donaldson, 38, said he was stepping away during an appearance on The Mayor’s Office podcast with former major league first baseman Sean Casey.
“Being home with the family, getting married, today is a sad but also happy day for me,” Donaldson said.
Donaldson played 13 years in the majors, including four with the Blue Jays, during which he emerged as one of the game’s most feared and prolific hitters, winning American League MVP in 2015. The Blue Jays acquired him in a blockbuster deal during the 2014 offseason that saw Canadian infielder Brett Lawrie and others packaged to the Oakland Athletics to bring Donaldson North of the Border.
The veteran helped the Blue Jays win 93 games in 2015, snapping their postseason drought in the process and advancing to the ALCS. Donaldson and the Blue Jays would make the playoffs again in 2016, being eliminated by the Cleveland Guardians in the ALCS.
Injuries and inconsistency limited Donaldson in 2018, his final year in Toronto. He was traded to the Guardians for reliever Julian Merryweather. Donaldson bounced around a few teams after that, including the New York Yankees, but never recaptured his previous form.
He is one of many players from Toronto’s memorable 2015 and 2016 teams to retire, a group that includes José Bautista, Edwin Encarnación, R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, Ryan Goins and Canadian Russell Martin, to name a few. In August 2023, Bautista was inducted to Toronto’s Level of Excellence at the Rogers Centre.
Donaldson steps away as a career .261/.358/.489 major-league hitter, with 279 home runs and 816 RBIs. He finishes with 46.8 Wins Above Replacement (WAR).
“I felt like it had to be a perfect situation for me to go back and play,” Donaldson added. “Things didn’t work out the way they could have, but like I said, I am excited about the next chapter. I feel very blessed to have played for as long as I have.”
