Josh Donaldson shares rehab video of him “getting closer” to return, receives mixed reviews
Toronto Blue Jays 3B Josh Donaldson posted a video of himself doing rehab work, but did it hurt his value more than help?
While the Toronto Blue Jays were in the midst of playing the Kansas City Royals Wednesday night in a game which they would win 6-5, their third baseman and former MVP Josh Donaldson was in Florida, where he continues to rehab a calf injury that’s had him on the disabled list since May 29.
Donaldson has missed the bulk of the summer with this injury, but is expected to be back on the field at some point this year. Initially diagnosed with “left calf tightness”, JD’s been on the shelf longer than expected. He was supposed to go on a rehab assignment in mid-June, but suffered a setback while fielding groundballs a week later and wasn’t evaluated for another three weeks after that.
As we reach the halfway point in August —aka two months after he was supposed to appear in rehab games— the “Bringer of Rain” shared his progress on the road to recovery as he posted a video on Instagram of him doing baserunning drills:
Donaldson’s post makes one think he shared it to show how far he’s come in his rehab program, meant to assure Blue Jays fans (or potential trade deadline buyers) that he’s getting ready for some in-game action. His caption “Getting closer!!” is an indicator that he’s proud of his progress and is indeed close to coming off of the 60-day DL .
However, looking at JD’s video of him running, his followers couldn’t possibly be too encouraged. Donaldson looks to be going 50% at best, and even though he’s not the most electric runner when going to first base this clip is underwhelming.
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Nobody knows when Donaldson will be back at the Rogers Centre, but looking at this video it doesn’t seem like the 2015 American League MVP’s anywhere near game-ready yet. This poses a problem for a Blue Jays front office who reportedly wants to trade the impending free agent before the end of August.
JD’s extended shelf time caused him to have little value at the July deadline, when he was initially expected to be moved prior to his injury. Even now, it’ll be interesting to see how much of a return Toronto would get for a guy whose suffered a calf injury and the throwing yips this season while having played just 36 games.
I still believe the Blue Jays will keep Donaldson past the trade deadline and give him the qualifying offer. If Donaldson accepts the QO, he can spend the first half of next season building up his value for the Blue Jays to trade him at the 2019 July deadline. This would ultimately clear the path at third base for top prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who’s been so otherwordly in triple-A he could be in the big league lineup right now.
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It’ll be interesting to see when Josh Donaldson returns to the Majors, and what the Toronto Blue Jays will do with him. Until then, all we have to base his rehab progress off of is one video of him jogging around first base.