Anytime Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson get together, you have to figure hitting is going to come up in the conversation.
The duo spent three seasons forming the heart of the Toronto Blue Jays lineup, guiding the team to back-to-back ALCS appearances in 2015 and 2016. In their three years as teammates, Donaldson and Bautista combined to hit 179 home runs and make three All-Star teams.
Known not only for their power at the plate but also for their innovative approach to hitting and ability to evolve throughout their careers — which peaked in Toronto.
On Wednesday, the two were guests at the Joe Carter Classic golf tournament at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont. and joined Sportsnet’s The FAN Morning Show, live on location, to discuss their careers and, of course, break down their swings.
“Those were the best years of my career, being able to play with Jose, (Troy Tulowitzki), Edwin Encarnacion and all these guys,” Donaldson said. “I remember when I got traded over here, I’m like, ‘you’re going to put me in the lineup with these guys?’
“Who are you going to pitch to? Turns out, nobody. Several times throughout the year, I remember pitchers were beat before they threw the first pitch.”
The Blue Jays offence was one of the most feared groups in baseball during Donaldson and Bautista’s tenure. During Toronto’s two playoff seasons, it led the league in runs scored and was second in home runs and slugging percentage.
“We had a unique thing going as a team, where nobody wanted to necessarily steal the show,” the now 43-year-old Bautista said. “We would like to put people back against the corner and just beat them down. We would just have guys create traffic around the bases, and then that guy that got up to the plate with a few men on, that guy would kind of put the dagger in.”
“We would talk about it in the hot tub before the game,” he later continued. “We were like, ‘let’s wear this guy out. Let’s take some pitches. He’s going to try and do this, (so) let’s try and do that.’”
Bautista was inducted into the Blue Jays’ Level of Excellence in 2023 for his career in Toronto, which spanned 10 seasons as he became one of the top power hitters in franchise history.
Donaldson, now 38, announced his retirement this past off-season after making five other stops following his time in Toronto. He became just the second Blue Jays player ever to be named MVP in 2015 after slashing .297/.371/.568 with 41 home runs.
“That’s how you get chemistry, right?” Donaldson said, following up on what Bautista said about the team’s approach. “That’s how you get everybody pulling on the same rope, and ultimately, in my opinion, that’s how you win.”
“If I don’t get the job done at the plate, (Bautista’s) coming up and he’s getting the job done,” he added. “Which (allows) you to take that weight off yourself. Everybody wants to be the guy, now it’s like, ‘OK, I don’t have to be the guy every time, now it’s him, now it’s Edwin… at the end of the day, all of us became better because everyone around us was getting better.”
The 2015 and ’16 Blue Jays not only scored runs in bunches, but they also took care of business at home.
In those two seasons, Toronto went 99-63 at Rogers Centre, an excellent record compared to the 83-79 mark it posted on the road. Creating a daunting environment for opposing teams to enter.
“I can’t tell you how many guys I’ve played with, that we were playing against that (said), ‘it was not very fun,’ going into Rogers Centre at that time as a pitcher (or) catcher because they knew they had their work cut out,” Donaldson recalled.
If the opponents knew they were in for a tough go against the Bautista-Donaldson Blue Jays, the stars doing the hitting knew just how ferocious they were to go up against.
“Sometimes, we were licking our chops, too, because we would try to get to the bullpen in the first game of the series,” Bautista said. “And then we knew the second, third and fourth game was gonna be a fun last couple of games.”
Those Toronto teams were able to win the mental side of the game against opposing pitchers as much as they were able to rely on their talent.
Donaldson and Bautista talked about how the chemistry they built talking about hitting while away from the field, helped them rack up runs in games, but they also had the ability to read opposing pitchers as a team and help each other make adjustments in-game.
“I remember one time we were in Seattle, and I was never really good at seeing if a guy was tipping pitches or anything like that, but we were facing a reliever and (Dioner Navarro) picked up his tip,” Donaldson said. “He went 1-2-3 the first day and got the save. (Then) he comes in either the second day or third day, and he didn’t record an out and gave up seven runs.
“All of us were on the bench, like, ‘Oh my God, we might end this guy’s career today.’”
Needless to say, going up against a team that’s not only trying to chase you from the game but trying to potentially chase you into retirement would be a scary proposition for any pitcher, especially when they have proven that they can do it.