3B · 2023

Josh Donaldson

Age: 38
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 1"
Weight: 210 lb
Number: #24

Born: December 8, 1985 in Pensacola, FL, USA
MLB debut: April 30, 2010

dbWAR: 31.8
PA: 189
AVG: .152
OBP: .249
SLG: .418
wRC+: 76

Josh Donaldson is a third baseman for the New York Yankees. In 2023 he hit 13 home runs and knocked in 26 RBIs, notching 25 hits across 189 plate appearances in 50 games. His batting average was .152, 39.0% lower than the league average of .248. He reached base at a .249 clip and slugged .418, for an OPS of .667, 9.2% lower than the league mark of .734 — 10th of 17 on his team, and 311th of 461 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 92.1 mph off the bat, hit 51.3% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 12.8% of them and made contact on 73.3% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 76 wRC+ puts his offence 24% below average. That comes to 0.0 dbWAR — -5.5 runs with the bat, -0.2 on the bases, -0.5 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2023.

wRC+76

wOBA.285

ISO.267

BB%11.6%

WAR.0

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2023. These four terms sum to +0.0 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2023	50	189	25	13	26	0	22	50	.152	.249	.418	.267	.115	11.6%	26.5%	.285	-5.5	76	0.0
2022	131	546	106	15	62	2	54	148	.222	.308	.374	.153	.283	9.9%	27.1%	.304	-3.3	95	1.3
2021	135	543	113	26	72	0	74	114	.247	.352	.475	.228	.268	13.6%	21.0%	.356	+17.9	128	3.3
2020	28	102	18	6	11	0	18	24	.222	.373	.469	.247	.231	17.6%	23.5%	.365	+3.7	130	0.7
2019	155	659	142	37	94	4	100	155	.259	.379	.521	.262	.292	15.2%	23.5%	.382	+33.2	140	5.3
2018	52	219	46	8	23	2	31	54	.246	.352	.449	.203	.302	14.2%	24.7%	.349	+5.5	123	1.2
2017	113	496	112	33	78	2	76	111	.270	.385	.559	.289	.289	15.3%	22.4%	.401	+31.7	155	4.7
2016	155	700	164	37	99	7	109	119	.284	.404	.549	.265	.300	15.6%	17.0%	.408	+48.4	152	7.3
2015	158	711	184	41	123	6	73	133	.297	.371	.568	.271	.314	10.3%	18.7%	.403	+48.4	165	7.9

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

																			Trend
2023	1	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	3.26	0.00	0.0	0.0	0	75	0.0	—

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Season

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2023. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHP	52	47	10	6	5	13	.213	.288	.660	.387	25.0%
vs RHP	137	118	15	7	17	37	.127	.234	.322	.246	27.0%

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2023. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	1	1	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%
vs RHB	2	2	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2023.

Loading 117 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 117 tracked batted balls in 2023. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate: 12.8%
Exit velocity: 92.1
Max exit velo: 112.3
Hard hit: 51.3%
Sweet spot: 24.8%
Launch angle: 11.7°

Barrel rate12.8%

Exit velocity92.1 mph

Hard hit rate51.3%

Contact rate73.3%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2023.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .248.

Situational hitting

How Josh Donaldson hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by

By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
Situation	PA	AB	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA
All situations	189	—	—	—	—	—	—	.152	.249	.418	.285
Bases empty	96	87	15	9	9	9	25	.172	.250	.517	.320
Runner on first	40	35	5	3	6	5	9	.143	.250	.400	.282
Runners on	93	78	10	4	17	13	25	.128	.247	.308	.250
RISP	53	43	5	1	11	8	16	.116	.245	.233	.225

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2023.

Pitch sequencing

What Josh Donaldson throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

Fastball

Select a count to see exactly what Josh Donaldson throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, and how often it misses in 2023.

Head to head

Put Josh Donaldson beside up to three others.

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Josh Donaldson

Similar players

Nearest 2023 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Ji Man ChoiPIT

wRC+: 64
HR: 6
AVG: .163
WAR: -0.4

Comparable

Giancarlo StantonNYY

wRC+: 85
HR: 24
AVG: .191
WAR: -0.4

Loosely similar

Francisco AlvarezNYM

wRC+: 96
HR: 25
AVG: .209
WAR: 1.7

Loosely similar

Joey VottoCIN

wRC+: 105
HR: 14
AVG: .202
WAR: 0.3

Loosely similar

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.