Blue Jays Mailbag: Extending Josh Donaldson Will Be Pricey, but Makes Sense

The Blue Jays season is mercifully over, but because there was so little of it on the field this year, that just means this is where the drama really starts.

Josh Donaldson kicked off the offseason with a bang—or, more specifically, a shot across the bow of the Jays’ front office—by declaring that he’d be happy to sign a long-term extension here and forgo free agency after next season (if the right deal is offered, of course). And it’s from there that we begin our dip into this week’s mailbag—the first of a long winter ahead, but one that ought to be full of transactions and intrigue.

If you have a Blue Jays question you’d like me to tackle for next week, be sure to send it to stoeten@gmail.com. As always, I have not read any of Griff’s answers.

This may sound like a cop-out, but I think every case is different. I don’t doubt that most players who express their desire to stay in a particular place are being sincere, but money still does the vast majority of the talking most times, and surely there is a bit of gamesmanship going on through the media on this stuff as well. So while it’s nice to hear that Josh Donaldson would be “tickled pink” if he and the Blue Jays were to come to an agreement on an extension this winter, and that he’d be happy to stay in Toronto long term, that alone doesn’t really give us anything to work with.