Atlanta Braves: Josh Donaldson finally showing his worth

Has Josh Donaldson proven his worth?

It’s really hard to value the worth of somebody who is making $23 million for one year. Unless he ends up finishing in the top five of the NL MVP race, there is no way he will ever be worth that contract.

But that doesn’t mean he can’t make a difference on this team.

He got off to a really slow start to the season starting 4-of-27 at the plate with no home runs and no RBI.

It didn’t help that the bullpen was awful, which started the talk that the Atlanta Braves should have saved the money for Donaldson to spend on the bullpen.

But even during that slow start, there were signs that Donaldson was going to break out. He was still hitting the ball hard with an average exit velocity on the year at 94.8, which would be the highest of his career (since 2015 when they started measuring exit velocity).

We know things in baseball tend to even out over 162 games, and that’s happened for Donaldson the past two weeks.

Over that span he’s 16-of-47 (.340) with 4 home runs and 7 RBI.

On Sunday night he showed that he’s capable of carrying a lineup for a night by going 3-4 with 2 home runs, 4 RBI, and 3 runs scored.