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TORONTO – Josh Donaldson probably knew what he wanted to enter the land of free will, and it was not the best deal possible.
He wanted a chance to bet on himself, a mulligan if you want.
Less than two weeks before his 33rd birthday, Donaldson wants a free agent market longer than a year. That's exactly what he will get after signing a one-year contract with the Atlanta Braves for $ 23 million.
That's exactly the same salary he earned in 2018 for playing all 52 games – 36 with the Blue Jays – and setting up a disappointing starting line .246 / .352 / .449 with just eight circuits at home while fighting recurrently. and calf injuries from the start.
Forty-six million dollars for two seasons is a very good way for Donaldson, but the Braves are obviously hoping for a higher output than the Jays got for $ 23 million.
Donaldson did not slow down the market to see what he holds, probably because the ultra-competitive third base player was not interested in a two or three year pact at a discounted price.
As he did in February, when he suspended his negotiations with the Blue Jays after the two parties were not in the "same stadium", Donaldson gives himself up to the task and his body responds to all surrounding issues. objective to reach a long-term agreement for next winter.
What this agreement might look like is to guess.
After free agents freeze last year and less than a month after entering the free market this year, there is no indication for the moment that the dam is about to break.
Donaldson will regain the status of free agent at the finish of his season of 34 years. It may be alongside two other prominent options in the free agents' corner. Nolan Arenado Colorado Rockies and Anthony Rendon Washington nationals.
But if he is able to display typical Donaldson figures in 2019, as everyone expects last summer, he will at least have the power to look for what he wants, even if it does not mean that he will get.
It's thanks to the leverage that the Blue Jays are now watching their former superstar with the team headed by their former general manager, the one who had originally brought Donaldson to Toronto in the first place, without compensation Selection.
Forget what the Jays could have gotten for the former MVP last winter or even at the trading deadline if he had been in good health, the decision to take what was on the table at the waiver deadline August 31 said a lot.
He added that the Jays preferred Julian Merryweather, a right-hander who had just undergone Tommy John's surgery, to the potential compensation selection – likely somewhere between 70 and 80 next June – that would have made him keep Donaldson back and gave him a qualifying offer at the end of the season.
There was also real concern that Donaldson would simply accept the Jays' QO, which would have locked him in an extra season in Toronto with $ 17.9 million.
Perhaps that's what he did, not least because Donaldson and his agents at MVP Sports Group should have made a decision by November 12.
The Blue Jays wanted to wash their hands of the whole situation, that's how the relationship deteriorated.
A fresh start with a club full of children was better than Donaldson's return and the potential improvement in the return of trade to the trade deadline next summer.
In this scenario, everyone got what they wanted once it was clear that Donaldson's value lay in the sewers and that the return would have been a fraction of what it could have been.
Agree or not, the Jays had an arm that they like at Merryweather, a value that they thought was superior to that of the potential compensation choice.
Donaldson, meanwhile, gets a good part of the change and a chance to redo it, this time on a legitimate competitor.
Not to mention Alex Anthopoulos, who adds a motivated player with a chip to his shoulder at his club in full swing, just for a boat full of Benjamins without risk attached.
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