The Underrated Excellence of Josh Danaldson

The Oakland Athletics are two time defending AL West Champions and they currently sit atop the standings again thanks to a pitching staff that currently ranks a full half run better than any of their American League counterparts and the unlikely emergence of the game’s best third baseman, Josh Donaldson.  Donaldson’s 2014 season has been the second most valuable in the majors according to fWAR – better than Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera, Yasiel Puig, Edwin Encarnacion, and even Steven Souza.  Other than the “Props to Josh Donaldson” included in my Hipster All-Star piece from last August, Off The Bench has failed miserably to convey Donaldson’s excellence over the last two years.  That is in part thanks to our collective poor performance at blog upkeep as we transition to real-world work, in part because Donaldson’s performance has been so underrated on the national scale, and in part because his rise to MVP status has been so surprising.  Never fear loyal blog readers, Donaldson’s superb accomplishments will be fully extricated as this post continues.

Let’s start with Josh Donaldson, the minor league catcher selected as a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds out of Auburn. Donaldson feasted on low-minors pitching hitting .335/.460/.590 in his first pro season with the Cubs.  He then struggled in A-ball in 2008 and the Cubs shipped him with a number of other unknowns (Matt Murton, Eric Patterson, Sean Gallagher) for Chad Gaudin and Rich Harden.  The A’s began their attempts at converting the catcher to a third baseman.  Though Donaldson would never appear in more games as third baseman than a catcher in any single season in the minors, he played third some every year.

His minor league stats as a whole did not portend future MVP-caliber production. He struggled to build success from one season to the next.  He backed up a season in which he hit .290/.379/.415 with a .238/.336/.476 season.  His OBP and Slugging Percentage were intriguing, but his raw home run totals (never more than 18 in a single year) failed to draw the big excitement.  He couldn’t find the stroke to be a major league star as a catcher.

Luckily for the 26-year old Donaldson and the A’s, a need arose for an everyday third baseman in 2012. Brandon Inge wasn’t the answer, but Donaldson failed to take advantage of the first significant major league time given his way.  The .289 OBP across 294 plate appearances seemed to signify that Donaldson’s aspirations as a Major League star were not to be.

All he did in 2013 was finish fourth in the AL MVP voting.  He hit .301/.384/.499 with 24 homers and clocked in 3^rd among all Major Leaguers in fWAR.  His average never dipped below .290 after April, he was the September AL Player of the Month, and he accumulated 289 total bases.

In 2014, we’ve seen much of the same.  He’s already hit 15 home runs, which sets him on a pace for 42 homers.  He’s leading the AL in runs scored and is playing third base like you would never know he was a former catcher.

Yesterday, ESPN held their annual franchise player draft, in which each pundit selects one player in professional baseball to be their “franchise player.” Mike Trout, obviously, went number one.  Followed by Bryce Harper, Clayton Kershaw, Manny Machado, etc.  I saw Josh Donaldson nestled in there with the likes of Xander Bogaerts, Joey Votto, and Carlos Gomez and was surprised.  I read Keith Law’s explanation for the pick: “He’s the best player still available” and was left wholly unsatisfied.  After doing my own digging, contemplating the excellence of both his advanced stats and the old-school metrics, it’s clear that over the last 14 months of baseball, he’s been among the game’s top 5 players.

The more I think about the A’s third baseman, the more I like him.  He hasn’t risen like some of the young progenies – he’s 28 and has yet to sniff an All-Star game.  I haven’t seen anecdotes of his transformation into an elite player thanks to being hit by a bus or as a gift from God.  He’s simply worked hard and has figured out the best way that he can play baseball.  Luckily for Josh, the best way that he can play baseball is a lot better than how other people can play baseball.

-Sean Morash