NEW YORK — Josh Donaldson was approached by reporters at 11:15 a.m. ET at the Yankees clubhouse to discuss that he will not be on the lineup for the third straight year. When Donaldson is at his locker during the time the media is allowed into the clubhouse, he is usually responsive and rarely declines an interview. But Sunday morning was different.
Upon arriving at the stadium, Donaldson got dressed, grabbed a bat, and headed to Yankees manager Aaron Boone’s office after declining to comment to a group of reporters.
“Nope. You can’t,” Donaldson said before walking through the clubhouse.
Boone was scheduled to speak to reporters at 11:30 a.m. to ensure his normal pre-game availability, but didn’t speak until 12:00 p.m. It’s rare for Boone to be even five minutes late for a pregame press conference. He even joked that he usually deals with reporters who might be a few seconds late.
“JD and I talked,” Boone explained the reason for his delay. “It just turned into a long conversation. That’s all.”
After Sunday’s win over Rangers, Donaldson said the meeting “was about a lot of baseball stuff.” He added: “I don’t think it’s as serious as you guys are trying to make it out to be. We’re having a conversation. It happened to be about his meeting (with the media) which I had no idea about.”
Boone said he and Donaldson had had some conversations over the past two days and said they were “on the same page.” Boone declined to go into details of the nearly hour-long conversation, but it appears Donaldson’s future role is at odds with what general manager Brian Cashman said just last week.
Cashman told reporters he wanted Donaldson to get “consistent attacks.” Sitting out three games in a row doesn’t mean you’re hitting consistent shots. But Boone continues to insist Donaldson will “play a lot” in the future. What “playing a lot” actually means remains questionable.
“He will,” Boone told Donaldson, who wanted consistency in playing time. “This is just a phase where I felt like I wanted to give him a few days to work through. That was my decision, so to speak, over this short distance, but I expect him to deliver constant attacks.”
Production at third base has been a disaster for the Yankees this season. At the start of Sunday, the Yankees were 27th with a WRC+ of 68 at third base. Both Donaldson and DJ LeMahieu have not produced at productive levels this season. Boone said both LeMahieu and Donaldson will get plenty of playing time going forward. Before Donaldson returned from a hamstring injury that sidelined him most of the season, Boone told reporters in May that he envisioned the veteran as “an everyday” player. A month later, Donaldson falls out of the squad for three days.
“I think he should be an everyday player,” Boone said. “This is a little reboot where I decided in a moment that I felt a couple of days was worth it.
“We have a number of people, of which there will be one who is sort of working on the puzzles, but like I said, he’s going to play a lot.”
Since returning from the injured list on June 2, Donaldson has been struggling. He is 6 of 48 (.125 batting average) with an OPS of .641. Since last season, the Yankees have repeatedly defended Donaldson’s lack of performance since he traded for him. Boone told reporters at spring training this March, “I think it’s crazy to think that recovery on offense isn’t possible.” This is a guy who still has shot speed and is super talented, and I think physically he is in much better shape than a year ago.”
The reality is Donaldson wasn’t the player the Yankees thought they were getting from Minnesota, where he hit 26 home runs and had an .827 OPS in 2021. Since joining the Yankees last season, Donaldson is hitting .210/.295/.378 with 21 home runs in a total of 617 plate appearances. This year, Donaldson has a WRC+ 59 in 21 games, meaning he’s 41 percent worse than the average MLB hitter.
“A little part of that is a little snippet of the season,” Boone said. “If you’ve really sat there and watched each and every one of them hit, I feel like in a lot of ways he’s got better shots than other places where he struggled a little last year. Like he gets his swing a lot. The effect is there. He was hitting a lot of hard balls right at people and if you go through that and not getting a lot of hits, it adds up. And then factor in a couple of days where he might not have been swinging that well, following a set of games where you might not have scored despite having a few good shots. It adds up and becomes grind of the season.”
Asked if he was upset about being benched for three games, Donaldson said: “Of course I want to play, but that’s not why we talked. Ultimately, I’m glad our team won and I’m here to help this team win ball games and contribute in any way I can.”
The expanded metrics show Donaldson’s barrel rate is 12.4 percentage points higher than last season. Its average exit speed is slightly better. The underlying readings may indicate there is some life left in Donaldson’s bat, but the results aren’t available.
If Donaldson continues to argue, naming him for action will likely be considered. He still owes about $10.5 million of his $21 million salary this year. He also has a $6 million buyout ahead of him for next season and will almost certainly not return to the Yankees if he stays on the roster for the rest of the year.
“I want to get him into a trajectory here where he’s going to be consistent hitting, then he can play a role and be in a better position to judge,” Cashman said last week.
This runway could soon run out.
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(Photo: Wendell Cruz / USA Today)