If Gerrit Cole was the straight-A student who was a pleasure to have in class, Josh Donaldson spent his school year playing hooky, starting fights in the hallways, and vaping in the bathroom before administration finally had enough and decided he needed to be another school’s problem. I suppose there exists a universe in which Josh Donaldson has some kind of reunion with the New York Yankees this offseason, but ours certainly isn’t one of them.
Donaldson played his last game in pinstripes on July 15th before the team finally cut bait on his sunk-cost contract, allowing him to latch on for 19 games with Milwaukee late in the year — where, in a cruel twist of fate, he played in two more playoff games in 2023 than anyone on the Yankees roster.