Report: Yankees, Red Sox, Astros Reached Out to MLB Over Josh Donaldson Trade to Indians
Rival teams will reach out to MLB to get some answer about the circumstances around the trade that sent Josh Donaldson from the Blue Jays to the Indians and then Cleveland's decision to put the third baseman on the disabled list, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports.
Donaldson was moved from Toronto to the Indians on Aug. 31, which was the day of his second rehab game after coming off the DL for a calf injury. It was also the last day he could be traded to remain eligible for the postseason. The 2015 AL MVP has not played an MLB game since May 28. Right before the trade, he was going to skip a rehab game due to leg soreness, but the contest was rained out.
In order for Donaldson to be moved, he had to first to be certified as healthy and capable of playing at usual level by the Blue Jays and the commissioner's office just so he could be placed on revocable trade waivers. A source told Rosenthal that Donaldson feared he wasn't healthy during the lead up to all of this and he didn't want to re-injure his calf prior to free agency, which led to a dispute between Donaldson and the Blue Jays about whether or not he was healthy enough to play.
Rosenthal reports that after MLB certified that Donaldson was healthy, a league official reached out to all the teams who had potential interest in Donaldson to issue a "buyer beware" warning, noting that Donaldson said he wasn't sure he was ready to be back on the field yet. Cleveland was given permission to speak with Donaldson after it agreed to the terms of the deal with Toronto. The Indians eased Donaldson's concerns by explaining that the Indians' medical staff would look at him and they would put together a plan for when he would be ready to get back to playing at the major-league level.
Donaldson, 32, was supposed to be placed on Cleveland's active roster after the trade based on MLB rules, but instead he was placed on the DL again.
The Yankees and Red Sox reportedly expressed their unhappiness about the situation to MLB. The Astros also reached out to get clarification on how Donaldson was able to get traded, but they were satisfied with what the commissioner's office had to say.
The Indians will likely be in the postseason this year along with the Yankees, Boston, Houston and the A's.
At 81-62, Cleveland has a 15.5 game lead over the Twins for the AL Central lead entering Monday.
