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Ranking the 10 greatest infielders in Blue Jays history

By Zachary Rotman

TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 18: Josh Donaldson #20 of the Toronto Blue Jays celebrates with teammate Edwin Encarnacion #10 after hitting a solo home run in the third inning against Corey Kluber #28 of the Cleveland Indians during game four of the American League Championship Series at Rogers Centre on October 18, 2016 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 18: Josh Donaldson #20 of the Toronto Blue Jays celebrates with teammate Edwin Encarnacion #10 after hitting a solo home run in the third inning against Corey Kluber #28 of the Cleveland Indians during game four of the American League Championship Series at Rogers Centre on October 18, 2016 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /
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May 3, 2018; Cleveland, OH, USA; Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson (20) celebrates his solo home run in the fourth inning against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /

4. Josh Donaldson

Josh Donaldson is another guy who wasn’t with the organization for very long but he was so impactful in his time in Toronto that he has to be on this list. In his three and a half seasons as a Blue Jay, he slashed .281/.383/.548 with 116 home runs and 316 RBI.

He was acquired in what turned out to be one of the best trades the Jays have ever made. They sent Brett Lawrie, Kendall Graveman, Franklin Barreto, and Sean Nolin to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for the Florida product. This is after Donaldson had a 29 homer season and made his first All-Star game with the Athletics.

Lawrie was a decent third baseman, but he was nothing compared to Donaldson. Graveman wasn’t really relevant until this season as a reliever for two of the Athletics division rivals, and Barreto and Nolin haven’t done much at the Major League level.

Simply put, the Jays stole Josh Donaldson from the Athletics.

His first season with the Blue Jays went just about as well as it could have gone. He slashed .297/.371/.568 with 41 home runs and 123 RBI. He led the American League in RBI and his 122 runs scored also led the league. He was an All-Star, won the Silver Slugger Award, and took home the American League MVP Award.

His 154 WRC+ from 2015-2017 ranked fourth in baseball and second only behind Mike Trout in the American League.

The Donaldson, Bautista, Encarnacion 2-3-4 punch in the lineup was the best in the game and struck fear in everybody. Donaldson had many memorable big hits but the moment I remember most in his career was when he scored the series-winning run in Game 3 of the ALDS in 2016 from second base thanks to a Rougned Odor error.

Donaldson played just 36 games for the Blue Jays in 2018 and did not appear to be the same hitter at all. The Jays traded him midseason to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for Julian Merryweather.

It’s unfortunate that he was only in Toronto for a little over three seasons but he had as good of a three-year run as anyone has wearing a Blue Jays uniform.

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