Josh Donaldson

[RollieTime]

Hard pass on Donaldson for me. I don’t see him staying highly productive for 3-4 years through the life of the contract. At 34, he is past his prime. Locking ourselves into a large $25+ million contract for 4 years for a player of his age is just not a wise investment.

 

I would rather explore the trade route or head into the 2020 offseason with a bunch of payroll flexibility to look at bringing in some other high end talent next offseason like Justin Turner, George Springer, DJ LeMahieu, Marcus Semien, or possibly Michael Brantley on a short term deal.

 

If we give Donaldson a ton now, we will not have the financial flexibility next offseason and lock ourselves into a long term crippling contract if he doesn’t remain an all-star talent into his late 30’s.

 

There are a bunch of intriguing names next offseason if they don’t sign extensions beforehand. I would prefer having the ability to bring in a couple guys like Brantley and Turner than to be stuck with a contract that I feel will look ugly after only 2 years.

 

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/josh-donaldson-518626?stats=career-r-hitting-mlb

 

Statcast has him in the top 5 or 10 in Barrel% Exit velo BB% it's crazy to call out regression in 3-4 years as a reason to not sign a 4 yr deal. Can he be the player he was last season w/o regression? Acknowledging our window with Yelich, who cares on year 4? When you get a beast at the plate the level of Donaldson. You want to argue about Shaw? Nothing in Shaw's history in statcast was top 20 or borderline elite. So maybe at the regression Donaldson is Best 2 years of Shaw with Milw. (I know not mentioned Shaw stopping that argument before it starts)

I just believe there isn't enough money to sign him now. They would need like a 20/27/27\25 type deal

 

Not sure why Shaw is being mentioned here? And I never thought he was an elite bat. My point before was that Shaw struggled mightily last year and the shift at least had a part to do with it. Hearing that Smoak seemed to hit into the shift frequently and seeing his average drop the last three years as shifting increased (.270 down to .242, down to .208 (!) last year) is definitely cause for concern. I’m skeptical of the signing and would prefer other guys, but I’m not going to make a big issue about it and drag this place down like some people have done lately. It’s just a singular opinion based off of one signing.

 

About Donaldson, I feel that he’s going to fall off a cliff very quickly production wise and be a mediocre player by year 3. That’s just my opinion and nothing else. Would he be productive the first couple years? Most likely yes. But going into a deal already expecting his production to decrease after only a year or two isn’t something I would do. Obviously I don’t help with the decisions, but giving a 34 year old such a large contract when he could fall off at any point is quite a large risk. One that I hope the Brewers don’t take. Because if he is anything other than all-star caliber if we are giving him $25-$27 million per year for 4 years, it would be hard to field a competitive team around him. Especially with a possible Cain regression to go along with that.

 

Could it work out? Absolutely. But could they both regress/continue to regress and totally ruin our ability to field a competitive team for 2-3 years as well? Also yes. I just don’t want to go down that route with Donaldson. Sign Castellanos who doesn’t turn 28 until right before the season. He’s a guy you give a large contract to who will be cheaper while also having the ability to break out more than he already has. He’s just entering his prime while the other is on the down swing.

[Ennder]

Shaw's struggles last year were mostly due to him striking out almost twice as much as the year before. Not sure that is a great comparison.

[jonescm128]

Ken Rosenthal reports that the Nationals and Twins both have four year offers out to Donaldson. Even if the Brewers were to match the 4 years, I highly doubt they could offer the money that the Nationals would. They were in on Rendon before he signed with LAA so they need someone to fill third and have plenty of money to do so.

 

Not looking great for the Brewers in the Donaldson sweepstakes. But lets be honest, we knew it was pretty unlikely anyways.

[wibadgers23]

Just seems inevitable that he’ll end up in Washington.

[markedman5]

Just seems inevitable that he’ll end up in Washington.

 

Nope

[DuWayne Steurer]

Donaldson has signed, so we'll close this thread.