Former Blue Jays slugger Josh Donaldson received a loud standing ovation in his first game at Rogers Centre Tuesday night since being traded by Toronto last season.
I wouldn’t describe it as a thunderous ovation — pardon the impending pun — but the fans in attendance at the dome let the ‘Bringer of Rain’ know how important he was to the franchise in his three-and-a-half seasons in Toronto.
The third baseman enjoyed his best season in the major leagues in 2015, his first in Toronto, and was named the American League MVP after batting .297 and belting a career-high 41 home runs while recording a league leading 122 runs scored and 123 RBI.
Donaldson, along with the likes of Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Russell Martin, Troy Tulowitzki, David Price, Mark Buehrle, Marco Estrada and Roberto Osuna, led Toronto’s baseball resurgence in 2015 and 2016 as the team made the playoffs for the first time since the World Series years of 1992 and ’93.
Three years later, not one of those players is still a Blue Jay.
Jays fans are still upset at team management for discarding Donaldson before the MLB trade deadline last Aug. 31, and they should be.
A calf injury sidelined Donaldson in May and he never made it back onto the field before he was dealt to Cleveland for a player to be named later, which turned out to be pitcher Julian Merryweather — who remains in the minors.
Hindsight is 20/20, and we all knew that third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was destined to star for Toronto in 2019, but Jays GM Ross Atkins should have at the very least given Donaldson a qualifying offer and kept him around for one more year.
Instead, the Blue Jays discarded Donaldson at his lowest point and didn’t get much in return, and now the Bringer of Rain is one of the hottest hitters in baseball and leading the Braves back to the playoffs.
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