Blue Jays sign Josh Donaldson to 1-year, $23 million contract

3 down, 6 to go.

The Blue Jays signed Josh Donaldson to a 1-year, $23 million contract, saving them from going to arbitration with their star.

The $23 million is a new arbitration record. And he will be the Jays highest paid player, this season, passing Troy Tulowitzki and Russell Martin.

In three seasons, with the Jays, Josh has a .285/.387/.559 with 111 home runs in 426 games. He’s 17th on our all-time home run list. When he hits his 21st home run this season, he’ll be in our top ten.

Now the Jays are on the clock to work out an extension for Josh, or consider trading him off. I’m hoping there is an extension coming.

We’ll likely have 6 more of these announcements today, though, I’m not sure this front office is as against going to arbitration as past ones were. We’ll see how things go today. I’m a big fan of keeping the players away from arbitration, I think it is bad business to stand in front of a arbitrator and tell a player why he isn’t as valuable as he thinks he is.

Welcome back Josh.