Josh Donaldson has a .395 career batting average, .487 on-base percentage and .852 slugging percentage in 191 career plate appearances against the Twins, with all three representing the highest marks for an opponent (minimum 100 PAs) in Twins history.
But how did he arrive at those gaudy numbers — which the Twins are glad he won't be building on now that he's officially signed with them? Here are some highlights and thoughts from Donaldson vs. the Twins in the last decade.
• Donaldson's first plate appearance against the Twins came on Sept. 19, 2010, against Francisco Liriano at Target Field. Appropriately enough, it ended with a walk.
Donaldson has walked 27 times in those 191 plate appearances against the Twins, a walk rate of 14.1%. That's even better than Donaldson's career mark of 12.4%, which is far above the MLB average (last year it was 8.5%).
In a series at Target Field last season while Donaldson was with Atlanta, he went 4-for-9 and walked five times. He walked 100 times last year with Atlanta. If he reaches that mark again this year, he'll be the first Twins player to do so since Harmon Killebrew a half-century ago.
At his introductory news conference Wednesday at Target Field. Donaldson said one reason he signed with the Twins is "personal success in this stadium." He likened hitting at Target Field to one of his favorite offseason pursuits — golf — and said some ballparks, like some golf holes, are just comfortable.
While Donaldson's career average at Target Field is .373 with 10 homers and a gaudy 1.283 OPS in 97 career plate appearances, he's been even better against the Twins away from Target Field. In 94 plate appearances at other stadiums against the Twins, he amassed a 1.408 OPS.
Donaldson's patient approach paid off against a lot of bad Twins pitching last decade. From 2012-17, when Donaldson did most of his damage against the Twins, Minnesota finished No. 28 or worse (out of 30) in team ERA four times and never finished better than No. 19. That included two monster series: three games in Toronto in 2016, when Donaldson was 6-for-10 with four homers; and four games at Target Field in 2017 when he was 10-for-17 with five homers.
• Perhaps Donaldson's most memorable at-bat against the Twins came in 2014 at Target Field and ended with a strikeout against Glen Perkins.
With the score tied 4-4 in the top of the 10th after the Twins had rallied to tie the score in the bottom of the ninth, Donaldson lofted a deep fly ball that hooked foul — per the account from La Velle E. Neal's story the next day.
Perkins struck Donaldson out on the next pitch after that, and could be seen yelling at him. Donaldson then took several steps toward Perkins as the benches emptied. Nothing much came of it, but afterward Donaldson said he could hear Perkins swearing at him.
"OK, whatever. I didn't feel like I disrespected him at all,'' Donaldson said after the game. ''I'm up there trying to win the game for our team and he's trying to win the game for his team, juices are flowing. I don't know what it was all about. I've never even spoken to the guy. I think I've faced him twice."
Parker Hageman from twinsdaily.com tweeted a video of the exchange last week, and Perkins replied that he and Donaldson "actually finished that conversation at the '14 All-Star Game since we were locker mates."
Now that discussion can continue, as apparently can another one: Which number Donaldson will wear in Minnesota. He was introduced with a No. 24 jersey, but he has typically worn 20 — Eddie Rosario's number with the Twins.
There are "still conversations that need to be had" about what number he will wear, Donaldson said.
Rosario only has an .840 career OPS at Target Field, so ...
