FORT MYERS, Fla. — Around these parts, Josh Donaldson needs no introduction. Where he goes, eyes follow. When he talks, ears perk up.
While the Twins’ new third baseman is still working on meeting his new teammates and committing faces to memory, Donaldson — the recipient of the largest free agent contract in team history — is quickly trying to adapt to his new organization.
One of his first points of business was to hold court with a group of the team’s prospects on Saturday while also testing out the team’s new force plate technology in the batting cages. Donaldson, who is looking to replicate to the success he’s had earlier in his career after a bounce back 2019, is also interested in helping develop the next wave of players within the organization.
“He brought up in a few different ways just affecting the lives of the people around him, being able to have an impact on the younger players in the organization, both major league players and the minor league players,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It sounds like he’s at the point in his life and in his career where the personal performance is obviously the most important thing, but he definitely places a value on the ways he can help others.”
That personal performance is why the Twins invested in him. And Donaldson, who last year was named the National League’s Comeback Player of the Year, is eager to get to work and to see what he can do another season removed from an injury-plagued 2018 season.
Last year, Donaldson hit .259 with a .379 on-base percentage and a slugging percentage while hitting 37 home runs — tied for second-most during any season in his career.
“If you look at the numbers, I feel like the first month and a half I was still trying to get my legs underneath me from missing pretty much all of 2018. And then about a month and a half into the season, I really kind of got my legs there and everything fell into place,” Donaldson said. “My offensive numbers were more like what they were in the past. I feel like if I can go do that for six months instead of being four, or four and a half months, then you’re looking at a different season.”
Last year, in his only season with the Braves, Atlanta ramped him up a little bit slower, he said, because the previous two spring trainings had been “rough,” for him. But he arrived to Fort Myers feeling good about where he is and ready to go, he said.
Donaldson is looking forward to joining a group that he said reminded him of the 2015 Blue Jays. That team fell short of its ultimate goal, losing in the American League Championship Series, but boasted a solid offense which included two hitters that reached 40 home runs — Donaldson being one of them — and one at 39.
It was also the best season of his career, his MVP season, where he slashed .297/.371/.568 with 184 hits, 122 runs scored, 41 home runs and 123 driven in. Asked if he reached those levels again, the third baseman didn’t blink.
“I definitely feel like it’s attainable again,” Donaldson said. “Obviously the bigger goals are to win a World Series. And I feel like if we’re able to accomplish that, my role in that is going to be pretty significant. But I definitely feel like I have those types of years left in the tank.”
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Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson looking to replicate MVP season - St. Paul Pioneer Press
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