Blue Jays’ Josh Donaldson confident heading into MVP announcement
Josh Donaldson’s trophy cabinet is filling up quickly, but he’ll gladly make some room for one more.
Over the past few weeks, the Toronto Blue Jays third baseman has picked up the AL Hank Aaron award as the league’s top hitter, a Silver Slugger, and was also recognized as the Sporting News and MLBPA’s Player of the Year.
He’ll find out Thursday if he can add the American League MVP award to that list when the announcement of this year’s recipient is made at 6 p.m. ET. The presentation is televised on MLB Network.
“There’s going to be some anticipation and excitement,” Donaldson said in an interview with Big League Stew on Wednesday. “There’s going to be lots of people at the house. We’re just looking forward to hopefully receiving an award.”
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Donaldson has been touted as the favorite, and while he knows Mike Trout and Lorenzo Cain are worthy candidates, he believes he’ll come out on top when the winner is revealed.
“I guess you could say I’m feeling confident,” said Donaldson. “But there’s three really good players that had good seasons. With that being said, I’m feeling pretty good with the season that I had, [from] a personal standpoint. I feel pretty good about it.”
As well he should. Donaldson hit .297/.371/.568 with 41 home runs and an AL-best 123 RBIs in his first season with the Blue Jays following a surprising offseason trade from the Athletics.
Once the initial shock from being dealt wore off, Donaldson quickly realized that moving from Oakland’s spacious O.co Coliseum to the hitter-friendly confines of the Rogers Centre in Toronto would be beneficial for his offensive numbers. He also knew he could only get better by joining a lineup that featured All-Stars Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Russell Martin, and together they pushed the Blue Jays into the postseason for the first time in 22 years.
“I came into the season feeling pretty good about the potential that was there as far as playing in Toronto for 81 games,” said Donaldson. “And being involved in the lineup that I was in, a lot of guys who are very potent hitter and I knew we could have something special.”
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Donaldson didn’t become a major-league regular until he was 27. Three years later, here he is as a finalist for the AL MVP. It took a position change, from catcher to third, and a complete teardown of his approach at the plate before he found success in the majors. Donaldson hopes his story can serve as inspiration for players that are going through struggles and encourage them to persevere through tough times. Who knows, there just might be an MVP award in their future.
“I think it would mean a lot. Not just for myself. It would mean a lot for guys who have not just come right out of the gate in the big leagues and just really took it by storm,” said Donaldson. “Some guys, they take a little bit longer, the whole late-bloomer kind of thing, and I think ultimately it would give other people belief in themselves that they can still figure it out at some point.”
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
