Josh Donaldson's turn at top of Bronx boo-birds' pecking order
New York Yankees designated hitter Josh Donaldson returns to the dugout against the Boston Red Sox during the sixth inning of an MLB baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, June 11, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Josh Donaldson is heading down a familiar road these days. Not for him, but everyone else who’s watched what’s been unfolding around the slumping third baseman.
Last season, it was Joey Gallo. With every strikeout — and there were many — the volume of booing in the Bronx seemingly would turn up a notch. Then the jeers would follow him to the field, normally a safe haven for the two-time Gold Glove winner. Ultimately, Gallo’s situation became unsustainable, and he was dealt to the Dodgers for a Double-A pitching prospect at the deadline.
This year, the formula repeated with Aaron Hicks, who was tormented nightly by the Bronx fans as his own numbers dwindled to microscopic levels. His confidence shattered, Hicks appeared lost — both at the plate and in the outfield — so the Yankees took the extreme measure of cutting him loose on May 20 despite owing him more than $27 million through the 2025 season.
Could Donaldson be next out the door?
It’s a question worth asking now, as Donaldson is looking like a very old 37 and struggling to be a consistent offensive threat again. With each passing day, Donaldson’s onerous contract — he’s due roughly $20 million for the remainder of this year, if you include the $8 buyout — becomes a little more palatable to jettison.
And Donaldson is quickly inheriting the title of Bronx Enemy No. 1 by the team’s own fan base, a group that previously shifted it’s very vocal frustration from Gallo to Hicks. Donaldson was loudly booed during each of his four at-bats Wednesday night — in a 4-2 Yankees’ victory, no less — and was narrowly spared the most thunderous abuse when the Mariners threw away his double-play grounder in the eighth inning (that drew raucous cheers instead).
Donaldson wasn’t around postgame, nor in the clubhouse during Thursday’s media availability, so I didn’t have the chance to get his perspective on the escalating Bronx hostility. But manager Aaron Boone was asked about Donaldson’s souring rep among the boo-birds, a question that he handled frequently during the deteriorating tenures of both Gallo and Hicks.
“I think he wants to show them because he knows he’s got it in there,” Boone said. “So there’s probably a little bit of that wanting to show them and wanting to perform. I really think, up until the past two nights, he’s been a little unlucky with his results and two tough right-on-right [pitchers] too. He’s been around a long time and had a lot of success, though. And been in the eye of the storm in a lot of places in his career.”
Not quite like this, where Donaldson is either hurt or close to an automatic out at the plate. He’s played in only 19 games this season, missing nearly two months with a hamstring strain, and entered Thursday night hitting .133 (8-for-60) with 19 strikeouts. And how’s this for an all-or-nothing stat: of those eight hits, six are home runs, but he’s got only eight RBIs.
Fortunately for Donaldson, he’s hardly an outlier in the Yankees’ underachieving lineup, so it’s not like anyone is threatening his playing time. At least not yet.
Boone essentially benched DJ LeMahieu for two straight games to give the two-time batting champ sort of a mental reset before starting him at second base for Thursday night’s series finale against the Mariners (Donaldson was at third, Gleyber Torres at DH). Oswaldo Cabrera was summoned from Triple-A Scranton earlier that afternoon to take the roster spot of the freshly injured Willie Calhoun (quad), but he was hitting .190 with four homers and a .535 OPS in 60 games before his recent demotion. The Yankees could eventually move over Oswald Peraza, who’s raking at Scranton (.292 BA, 11 HRs, .923 OPS), but that’s a dice roll given his limited experience at third base.
Sizing up the competition, the Yankees’ only logical alternative is to see if Donaldson still has something left. So far, the evidence has shown he can run into a pitch on occasion, but the extended waits in between those homers are ugly, much like Gallo before him. If LeMahieu truly winds up being fixed by his brief mental break to work on things, then maybe he’ll make Donaldson obsolete. But the Yankees haven’t reached that point yet.
“I’d like to get him really consistent at-bats before we try to assess what’s going on,” GM Brian Cashman said this week. “Obviously last year he had a subpar offensive season. But prior to that he’s always been an above-average offensive player. This year, he got out of the gate I thought looking good and then he got hurt . . . So I’d like to get him some runway here where he gets some consistent at-bats, get on a roll and be in a better position to judge.”
Oh, right. Almost forgot about last year. When Donaldson’s .682 OPS was the second-worst among the 22 qualified third basemen and his .222 average ranked third from the bottom. Incredibly, Donaldson seem to have gone downhill from there. And if this keeps up, he’ll never stop hearing about it from his irate Bronx buddies.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
