Yankees finally part ways with infamous player

Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP, had been with the Yankees for the last two seasons after being acquired in a trade with the Minnesota Twins. But he was a lemon for them, batting a miserable .207 during his Yankees tenure. 2023 had been especially rotten for Donaldson, who hit .142 overall and missed significant time due to various injury issues (some of which were quite bizarre).

To make matters even worse, Donaldson’s presence on the roster had grown increasingly toxic, and there were signs that he wasn’t seeing eye-to-eye with manager Aaron Boone. Thus, the addition by subtraction should help for the Yankees. But no matter how you slice it, the nearly $50M that the team ended up paying to Donaldson hurts, especially given their recent history of such bad contracts.