Former MLB slugger Josh Donaldson announced his retirement from professional baseball on Monday.
With a lot of stories to tell his children, the third baseman will now enjoy some family time and, as he said it himself, will play a lot of golf.
The last two years of his career were rather ugly, but he was a star for most of his MLB tenure.
He started his career with the Oakland Athletics in 2010, as a 25-year-old, but it wasn’t until 2013 that he managed to establish himself in The Show.
His absolute peak, however, came with the Toronto Blue Jays.
In 2015-16, he was a monster.
Donaldson said that the 2015 Blue Jays were a top squad, the best he ever played on.
“Josh Donaldson just named the 2015 @BlueJays as the best team he played on in his @MLB career. ‘The city of Toronto took fire,’ Donaldson told us on @MLBNetwork. ‘That was a special moment,’” MLB insider Jon Morosi tweeted with Donaldson’s quotes.
Josh Donaldson just named the 2015 @BlueJays as the best team he played on in his @MLB career.
“The city of Toronto took fire,” Donaldson told us on @MLBNetwork. “That was a special moment.”
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) March 5, 2024
That was probably the best year in franchise history since they won the 1993 World Series.
After winning the AL East with 93 victories, the Jays took down the Texas Rangers in the Division Series in impressive fashion.
They fell in a 0-2 hole in the series, but battled back and took the matchup that became famous for Jose Bautista’s iconic bat flip after his series-sealing three-run home run in Game 5.
Those Jays had Bautista and Donaldson in the heart of the order: that was the year in which Donaldson took home AL MVP honors with a .297 average, 41 home runs, and 122 runs scored.
They eventually fell to the Kansas City Royals in the AL Championship Series, 4-2, but the city of Toronto got to enjoy postseason baseball for the first time in more than two decades in part thanks to Donaldson.
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