Empire Writes Back
Fansided

Yankees Rumors: Missed chance to acquire Josh Donaldson?

By Nick Ziegler

facebooktwitterreddit

One of the more interesting New York Yankees rumors to emerge months after the fact was that the Yankees inquired about possible 2015 MVP Josh Donaldson this past offseason.

More on Empire Writes Back: MLB Power Rankings.

It was a shocking development last offseason to see Donaldson traded from the Oakland Athletics to the Toronto Blue Jays. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, Brian Cashman inquired about Donaldson but was told that he was unavailable by Billy Beane.

Despite not wanting to trade Donaldson, Alex Anthopoulos, who is the general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Alex is and was certainly relentless,” Oakland assistant GM David Forst said by phone to Sherman. “That is his personality. But we didn’t trade Josh to make Alex go away.”

The move to acquire Donaldson cost the Blue Jays Brett Lawrie, Kendall Graveman, Sean Nolin and Franklin Barreto. As of now, the move is an absolute steal with the way that Donaldson is playing in 2015. This season, Donaldson is batting .299 with 39 home runs and 120 RBIs. 2015 was also the second straight year that Donaldson made the All-Star team in the American League.

More from New York News

“They had been pretty persistent, and we were pretty adamant that wasn’t something we were willing to talk about,” Beane said of dealing Donaldson to ESPN.com. “We wouldn’t have done the deal unless it addressed now and the future and they were able to do that. This deal in our minds addresses a little bit of everything. It got pretty serious the last 48 hours. They were reluctant to give up all four players, and we weren’t going to do it without those four players in the deal.”

The trade of Donaldson has altered the course of the AL East this season and possibly for years to come with how well Donaldson is playing.

Cashman knew that the Yankees had to do something at third base this offseason with Alex Rodriguez’s status at the time unknown whether he would be able to play the field or not. The Yankees elected to sign Chase Headley to a four-year deal, which has been a fine move despite some surprising issues fielding this season.

The persistence of Anthopoulos to acquire Donaldson has paid huge dividends this season in arguably the best move of the offseason. Anthopoulos has been extremely aggressive in 2015, as his moves to acquire Donaldson, David Price and Troy Tulowitzki have given the Blue Jays the edge to win the American League East crown in 2015.

Next: Who is the greatest Yankee of all-time?

More from Empire Writes Back

Home/New York News