Blue Jays’ Josh Donaldson Leading All Star 3B Voting

For a while now, it seemed like The Kansas City Royals would be represented at nearly every position for this year’s All Star Game in Cincinnati. There have been a handful of Blue Jays players who were making their push in the fan voting portion of the game.

According to Mark Newman at MLB.com, Toronto third baseman, Josh Donaldson has taken over the lead in the American League. For a long time he’d been trailing Mike Moustakas of the Royals. But updated results show that Donaldson has surpassed him 11,738,206 to 10,372,868.  That is quite a significant change from when the balloting first started. But, Josh Donaldson has been getting lots of support.

One person who’s taken up the cause is Canadian actor, Stephen Amell. Amell plays television’s Arrow. He’s been incredibly vocal of late in his push to get Donaldson voted in. The following video is just part of his campaign. It first appeared on the actor’s Facebook page.

As helpful as this push from Amell has been, what has probably helped Donaldson’s case more is the play featured in the above video. His leap into the seats to catch a foul ball was viewed and shared all over. It was the subject of water cooler talk for days. In fact, it prompted Jays Journal’s Kyle Franzoni to ask if it was the greatest catch in Blue Jays history. While that is up for debate, what is not is the awesomeness that catch represents. 

Toronto Blue Jays

However, we should not make the mistake of thinking that the push from a Canadian actor and one catch are the reasons The Bringer of Rain is leading the way. He’s putting up a great season and is an early candidate for MVP. He’s hitting .301/.360/.540. Among qualifying third basemen, Donaldson is 4th in average, 3rd in SLG, 3rd in RBI (48), 3rd in doubles (18), 1st in hits (91), 1st in runs (58). According to Fangraphs.com, Donaldson’s value to the Blue Jays cannot be understated. Offensively speaking, he’s worth 21.7 runs above average and 6.7 defensive runs above average. His 4.3 WAR would see him paid $34M! The Blue Jays are getting a bargain.

Thus far, Donaldson has been leading the best offense in MLB. But, he’s not only doing it with the bat. While he’s made 10 errors in 2015. That is a lot. There is no arguing that. But, if you consider he’s getting used to the turf at Rogers Center and still worth 6 DRS, it doesn’t seem so bad. Take into account that he has made 23.5% of the plays that are categorized as “Remote” (according to Inside Edge) and 22.2% of the “Unlikely” ones, we get a player than the number of errors would suggest.

There is still time left for things to change (the starters will be revealed Sunday evening), but right now, Josh Donaldson is the starting third baseman for the American League in the 2015 All Star Game. And, he’s a Blue Jay!

That also means that there is time to vote for other Blue Jays too. While Russell Martin, Jose Reyes and Jose Bautista trail be quite a bit, you can head over and vote for them to help their cause.

Next: Blue Jays Player of the Week: Marco Estrada