Atlanta Braves: Josh Donaldson Is Heating Up

The Atlanta Braves were in Cleveland over the weekend to play a three-game series with the Indians. In a series that looked like it had a chance to go sideways in a hurry, the Braves were able to salvage their play and won two of the three games.

The final game, an 11-5 mauling in favor of the Atlanta Braves, has Josh Donaldson and his two home runs to thank for almost half of the run production.

Josh Donaldson, the former AL MVP, agreed to come to Atlanta in the offseason on a one-year deal, 23 million dollar deal. The move was met with great curiosity and trepidation all at the same time. Yes, Donaldson was a former MVP who could hit your team more than 40 home runs in a season. Conversely, Donaldson is coming off injuries that have kept him off the field for most of the last three seasons. It was a gamble, a big gamble for the Braves to take on the risk but sometimes the risk is worth the reward.

Fast forward to the end of Spring Training, and it’s not looking great for Josh Donaldson, who had an average Spring Training, to say the least. In his time in Florida, Donaldson hit .130 with a .250 on-base percentage. Also, adding one home run and four RBI. It wasn’t the start of his Braves tenure that any fan, Braves player/front office, or Donaldson himself wanted to see. But it was Spring Training, so no need for panic right? With the start of the season looming, Donaldson was looking to produce when the season started to shake off the stink of his bad spring.

The season started, but Josh Donaldson did not start off in a sprint. More of a crawl for the first few weeks. And that was okay because Donaldson was hitting the ball consistently. The only problem was he was hitting the ball where the other team was. Until a couple of weeks ago. After seeing pitching for a couple of weeks, Donaldson started to hit. And he started to hit the ball very well.

In the last two weeks, Donaldson has hit .341 with an on-base percentage of .449. He’s hit four home runs and adding 7 RBI to go with that. Last night, in Cleveland, Donaldson’s old team, was where it seemed to all click for the former MVP. Donaldson, in his first two at-bats of the night, took the Indians pitcher deep. He added a single and a walk in for good measure, too. It was a night that Donaldson has been desperate to have since signing with the Braves. And for it to happen in Cleveland, the place where a lot of his success took place, had to make it all the sweeter for the new Braves player.

In a summer that promised big money free agents, that was the plan anyway, Josh Donaldson was all the Braves got. It was a deal that made Braves fans excited but still left the fans with questions about whether this guy could still get it done at a high level. After Spring Training and the start of the season, the questions got louder.

After these two weeks, the questions have stopped and the cheers are getting louder for Donaldson. Donaldson’s success was never going to replicate overnight, but now that he has had time to get back into the groove of playing baseball every day, the Braves look like they may have an answer opposed to more questions.