Atlanta Braves: Josh Donaldson finally showing his worth

Josh Donaldson was a key factor in the Atlanta Braves series win over the Cleveland Indians this past weekend, showing why he was given $23 million.

The lone big splash in free agency this past offseason for the Atlanta Braves was signing 33-year-old third baseman Josh Donaldson to a one-year, $23 million contract.

At the time it seemed like a great move for the Atlanta Braves as they got an MVP-caliber player for one year to bridge the gap to Austin Riley.

And that also freed up Johan Camargo to become a super utility player, which deepens our bench.

But at that time we thought Donaldson was just the beginning of what most Braves fans anticipated to be a busy offseason.

Going into the offseason our goals were to find a right fielder, catcher, closer, and possibly a frontline starter.

Nick Markakis and Brian McCann filled two of those needs — albeit underwhelmingly — but the pitching needs were never addressed.

And with how terrible the bullpen — in particular — has been to start the 2019 season, many are now questioning whether giving all that money to Josh Donaldson was worth it in the end.

Of course, we won’t really know what their plans were for allocating money this past offseason. Maybe they never had any intention of upgrading the pitching staff.

But you can’t help but wonder if they hadn’t spent $23 million on one player, could that have been used to improve the bullpen?

I still think that’s garbage and that they had money left to sign a bullpen arm or two.

And I think we are finally starting to see the worth of Donaldson in this lineup as Alex Anthopoulos envisioned it happening.