Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson catches a ball in a drill during baseball spring training in Dunedin, Fla., on Tuesday, February 24, 2015.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Josh Donaldson wasn't expecting a ticker-tape parade back in 2010 when he stroked his first Major League Baseball home run for the Oakland A's.
Donaldson, playing in just his second big-league game after getting summoned from the minors, hit the two-run shot in the top of the fourth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays, and it helped secure Oakland's 4-3 victory at Rogers Centre.
But after the game, when he got back to the clubhouse, the rookie did anticipate at the very least a pat on the back, maybe a tousling of his hair by one of the veterans, in recognition of a job well done.
Instead, Donaldson got the silent treatment.
"When I came into the clubhouse … everybody was just kind of like, okay, whatever," Donaldson said. "They were just about themselves."
The 29-year-old is now a member of the Blue Jays, their new blue-chip third baseman who was obtained in an unexpected four-for-one trade with the A's in November. Brett Lawrie, used at both third and second base by the Jays, was the key player who went the other way.
Here is the main difference between Lawrie and Donaldson. Donaldson has averaged 158 games-played the last two seasons; the oft-injured Lawrie averaged 88.5.
Donaldson is proud of his durability. "In baseball, I think that's your sixth tool," he said. "Everybody talks about having five tools. I think the sixth tool is being able to stay on the field, because if you're not able to stay on the field, you're not able to benefit your club.
"So for me and Brett Lawrie, I played against him in the minor leagues, I played against him in the big leagues. Definitely a very good baseball player who I think over time will kind of figure that out, how to stay on the field."
Although the first official workout for position players at the Blue Jays spring training camp is not until Friday, Donaldson is here early to try to get the feel of his new club.
He worked out at the Bobby Mattick Training Center and, during batting practice, displayed some of the wallop that has helped make him one of the game's more feared sluggers over the last two seasons.
In the last two years, Donaldson has hit .277, averaging 96 runs batted in and 26 home runs.
"We're fantasizing about putting him in there with Eddie [Encarnacion] and [Jose] Bautista and those guys," manager John Gibbons said of his lineup. "It makes us that much better."
Now entering what will be just his third full season at the major-league level, Donaldson, 29, brings a level-headed approach to a game often dominated by me-first types.
He said that winning teams don't subject fellow teammates to the cold-shoulder treatment he got after he hit his first home run.
And he got a completely different sense of team chemistry in 2012, when he was making the transition from catcher to third baseman with the A's: Veteran Jonny Gomes, now with the Atlanta Braves, took a mentorship role with Donaldson.
"The guy is a winner," Donaldson said of Gomes, "and he really took me under his wing and kind of showed me how winners play the game, the attitude that they bring. These guys don't change."
Donaldson said even when you go 0-4 with four "punchouts," there are still things a player can do to help the team try to win. Tell the next batter that it was a slider you struck out on and to be ready for it, he said.
"It's just really focusing it more on your teammates than yourself, because if you get caught up in numbers and stuff like that, you're going to drive yourself crazy," he said.
It took dogged pursuit by general manager Alex Anthopoulos for the Blue Jays to land Donaldson. Anthopoulos said he had already called Oakland GM Billy Beane on two occasions last season inquiring specifically about the third-baseman's availability.
Anthopoulos said it was his plan to have Donaldson play third for the Blue Jays, and move Lawrie to second base full time. But Beane was adamant that he was not parting with Donaldson. But when Anthopoulos made a third call in mid-November, again inquiring about Donaldson, but this time dangling Lawrie as trade bait, Beane went for the deal and it was announced a week later.
"We weren't looking to trade Brett Lawrie, but it wasn't getting anywhere with trying to get Donaldson," Anthopoulos said. "Once I introduced Lawrie to fill that hole for him [at third], then he seemed a little bit more open-minded and we took it from there."