Donaldson Back in Lineup at 3B

After experiencing “dead arm” for the past few games, Josh Donaldson will be back at third base for tonight’s game against the Chicago White Sox.

We remember that he couldn’t make a proper throw from the third base side during the home opener and it looked like a long DL stint was imminent. It turned out that he wasn’t injured and that his arm was just…dead! It’s better to be dead than injured, as they say.

This allows the benched Kendrys Morales to finally get some at-bats as he slots into the DH spot, and Yangervis Solarte, who actually played well in his brief time at third, moves over to second base for tonight’s game. Solarte looks like he’ll go back to being the super utility/bench bat guy for now.

Solarte may only have 3 hits in 16 at-bats on the young season so far, but it’s incredibly useful to have a guy like him that can just plug in all over the infield and not be a completely terrible option at the plate.

In other lineup news tonight, Luke Maile gets the start behind the plate. It looks like John Gibbons will keep Russell Martin and Devon Travis’ days off together, and it’s nice to know that a guy like Solarte will take those at-bats with Maile instead of a zero on offense like Ryan Goins or Darwin Barney or even – GASP! – Gift Ngoepe.

Depth!