Josh Donaldson took the road less traveled to AL MVP award

At about this time four winters ago Josh Donaldson was in the Dominican Republic learning how to play third base. He was about to turn 26 and with just a small handful of major-league plate appearances to his name, he could feel the time ticking away on his baseball career.

Donaldson was settling into what baseball people call a “four-A player” which is a short-hand way to refer to players that are too good for Triple-A but can’t quite get their game right in the big leagues. Those kind of guys are valuable to an organization, useful in a utility role and good to have around in case of an injury, but they’re not being confused as being the most valuable. 41 home runs and 123 RBIs are numbers attainable over the course of a career. Certainly not in one season. And an MVP award? Forget it.

If there’s one thing to know about Josh Donaldson, though, it’s that he doesn’t settle. So he spent hours every day watching video of baseball’s best hitters and applying what he saw on film in the batting cage. The position change, from catcher to third, was another part of the process.

It didn’t go so well at first. An injury to a teammate gave Donaldson the opportunity to be the opening day third baseman for the Oakland Athletics in 2012, but he struggled over the first two months, lost his job and was soon sent down to Triple-A.

Tick, tick, tick.

After a few weeks in the minors, Donaldson returned to Oakland’s lineup in mid-August and finally found his stroke at the plate, hitting .290/.356/.489 over the final 47 games of the season. He’s been stacking successes on top of each other ever since.

The next season Donaldson truly emerged as a star, finishing fourth in the AL MVP race. In 2014 he was named to the All-Star team for the first time and this time came eighth in MVP voting. Then came the stunning trade to the Toronto Blue Jays. Donaldson didn’t see it coming, but he quickly came to realize it was what he needed. The Blue Jays already had a lineup stacked with accomplished veterans like Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and fellow offseason acquisition Russell Martin – Bautista happened to be one of the players Donaldson watched the most intently when he was remodeling his game.

Playing alongside Bautista, Donaldson raised his game to another level. He was a force from day one, hitting .297/.371/.568, playing terrific defense at third and, yes, smashing 41 home runs and driving in 123 runs in 158 games. Fans in Toronto were showering Donaldson with chants of “MVP” when he stepped into the batter’s box as early as June, and those chants carried strong as the Blue Jays reached the postseason for the first time in 22 years.

Add it all up, and it was enough for him to beat out Angels outfielder Mike Trout for the American League MVP, with Donaldson receiving 23 of 30 first-place votes.

“I think [winning the MVP] 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,” Donaldson told Big League Stew in an interview Wednesday before the announcement was made. “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.”

From a four-A player to the most valuable player in four short years. And with his 30th birthday fast approaching, Donaldson knows better than anyone that it that just as much work to survive as it does to thrive. Four years ago, the process was to do whatever it takes to stay in the game. Now Donaldson’s focus is on what he has to do to stay on top.

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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

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