Exactly one year ago this past weekend, the Oakland A’s sent presently-awesome-and-trending-upward third baseman Josh Donaldson to the Blue Jays for a package of young players, headlined by formerly-awesome-and-trending-downward third baseman Brett Lawrie.
One year into the deal, Lawrie’s decline continued apace, and Donaldson’s ascendance continued just the same – he posted a .297/.371/.568 line this season, and totaled an incredible 8.7 WAR. That was good enough to win him the MVP, and get me looking back at one of his best plays on the season: