Cleveland Indians: Josh Donaldson officially moves on to a new team

Josh Donaldson was not in a Cleveland Indians uniform for that long, and his tenure is officially over as he has signed with a new team.

Josh Donaldson hit a home run on September 14 of this year and had me thinking the Cleveland Indians had that magic back.

Too bad it was just one hit in a loss.

The Indians brought Donaldson to town in September and he ended up appearing in 16 regular season games. He also played in all three playoff games, picking up one hit in 11 at-bats.

The Donaldson era ended abruptly and the goal of him coming to town to help this team win a World Series never came to be.

He signed a one-year, $23 million last year so it seemed like he would be out of the Indians’ price range for a deal in 2019. That became official today.

Kudos to the Atlanta Braves for being bold and to Donaldson for getting that money. The Indians are not in a position to make such an offer to any player, let alone one with injury concerns.

Nothing changes for the Indians now that Donaldson is with the Braves, but it is proof that he isn’t coming back for those who may have held out hope that he could return.

Moves like the one to sign Donaldson will continue to happen as long as the Indians are contenders. It is the smart route considering the Indians can add top talent late in the year for cheap, as opposed to sinking too much of the payroll into one player on a long-term deal.

We saw it with Jay Bruce in 2017 and with Donaldson in 2018. Now we can all wonder about who the Indians will add in 2019. But first, the team needs to get the rest of the roster situated before we can look ahead at all.