New York's Michael Kay says Josh Donaldson trade with Twins will 'haunt' Yankees
The Twins finally have a win against the Yankees. No, not a postseason win or much less a regular-season victory, but in the eyes of famed YES Network play-by-play announcer Michael Kay, the Twins won the Josh Donaldson trade.
“That is going to go down as one of the worst trades that [Brian] Cashman's ever made because you accepted $50 million in Josh Donaldson’s contract," Kay said on his radio show Monday. “That deal is going to haunt them for a long time, a long time.”
In March the Yankees and Twins agreed to a swap that sent Donaldson, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Ben Rortvedt to the Bronx for Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela.
“The Yankees big move last year, last offseason, the big move, let’s all be honest with each other, was the trade with the Minnesota Twins,” said Kay. “You got Josh Donaldson, who is not near the offensive player you thought he would be. Not near the offensive player. Not near the former MVP. You didn’t get anything approximating what you thought he was going to give you.”
Donaldson hit .222/.308/.374 for 15 home runs and 62 RBI, all down from 2021 when he hit .247/.352/.475 with 26 homers and 72 RBI for the Twins. His batting average. on-base percentage and slugging percentage were all the lowest of his career since he became an everyday player for the Oakland Athletic's in 2013.
“You got rid of Sanchez and Urshela and you took on $50 million in contractual obligations for a former MVP who just didn't play like that this year, at least on the offensive end. These are questions that [Yankees owner] Hal Steinbrenner has to ask the front office, 'What made you guys do this?'"
That was all in Hour 1 of his three-hour show. Here's what he said in the third hour.
"The deal for Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Josh Donaldson and Ben Rortvedt is going to turn out to be awful," Kay went on. "The $25 million that you're going to give to Donaldson, you can't give to anybody else. Donaldson played great defense. That trade was made to improve their defense. He was great defensively, he should've won the Gold Glove. He's not even in the top three, inexplicably. But he's not close to the offensive player that he was and then in the postseason he didn't show up."
Kiner-Falefa "disappeared in the postseason," Kay said, noting that first baseman Anthony Rizzo saved Kiner-Falefa "so many errors" on bad throws from his "yippy" defensive play.
"It's not a great look. And I know they wanted to get rid of Gary Sanchez, and it did improve the defense, but if you wanted to get rid of Gary Sanchez just release him. It would've cost you a quarter of the money he was making. Instead, you traded him to the Twins along with Urshela, who's not as good defensively at third as Donaldson but probably is more timely of a hitter than Donaldson was."
Ironically, the trade was supposed to help the Twins win the AL Central because it freed up the money to sign Carlos Correa. Instead, the Twins stumbled and missed the playoffs and are now looking at the possibility of losing Correa as an unrestricted free agent after he opted out of the final two years of his contract.
In the end, nobody wins. But at least the Twins don't have another $25 million on the books for Donaldson.
