Josh Donaldson Trade: MLB Fans Scratching Their Heads After A's Move Star Player

The Oakland Athletics traded away their best player on Friday, a move that had fans and experts alike caught off guard. But they weren't as surprised as Josh Donaldson, the player Oakland sent to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Donaldson told the San Francisco Chronicle he was playing video games when his agent texted him.

"I'm so shocked," Donaldson said. "I just got off the phone with [general manager] Billy Beane, and I guess they got an offer that they couldn't resist. I'm definitely a little emotional about it. Oakland is my home. At the end of the day, it's a business, as much as it hurts emotionally. The guys in that clubhouse are my brothers."

Sports Illustrated's Cliff Corcoran perfectly outlined Donaldson's contributions to his now-former team, which made the playoffs this season.

"Arguably the best fielding third baseman in baseball other than Manny Machado (that's if Machado can sustain his performance with his surgically repaired knees), Donaldson has hit 53 home runs with a .200 isolated slugging over the last two years despite playing his home games in Oakland's cavernous Coliseum," Corcoran wrote. "He also has drawn 145 unintentional walks over the last two seasons for a combined .277/.363/.477 line, which translates to a 135 OPS+ after correcting for his home ballpark."

David Cameron of FanGraphs saw it as a disappointing transaction for A's fans.

"On the surface, it's easy to look at this move and think that it suggests the A's are switching back into a build-for-the-future mode," he wrote.

And then there was this from teammate Josh Reddick:

Corcoran also made some sense of the deal, which netted Oakland a slew of young players, including third baseman Jed Lawrie. "It's not impossible to see why the A's made Donaldson available," Corcoran wrote. "He'll turn 29 in early December and is due for a huge raise in arbitration, which he is eligible for the first time this winter." Of course, Toronto general manager, Alex Anthopoulos, was obviously thrilled with his haul. "Donaldson's been an outstanding player," Anthopoulos said. "We're getting a middle-of-the-order bat, and it's something that we need. We didn't expect him to be available. ... It doesn't hurt to ask. We asked if there was any way we could ask about Donaldson. Billy told me emphatically no. We left it at that. A few days ago, we were talking again and asked again. Finally when Brett was involved to replace Josh, that's when it started to move again." Donaldson had some nice parting words for A's fans:

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