Josh Donaldson has big fan in Atlanta manager Brian Snitker
Yankees' Josh Donaldson singles in the second inning against Atlanta on Saturday.
Credit: AP/Lynne Sladky
TAMPA, Fla. — By his own admission, Josh Donaldson isn’t for everyone, a player whose high intensity has rubbed those in the dugout the wrong way at times.
Just don’t tell that to Brian Snitker.
The Atlanta manager, who led his club to its first World Series title since 1995 in 2021, had Donaldson for the 2019 season.
“It was awesome. I loved having him. He brought that edge to our club,” Snitker said before Saturday’s game. “And he had a great year. I loved being around him just because that guy came to play every day. He came to win. He had a good, nice effect on our clubhouse.”
Donaldson, now 36, hit .259 with 37 homers, 94 RBIs and a .900 OPS in 155 games in 2019.
The offensive statistics speak for themselves, but Snitker — a lifer in the Atlanta organization dating to 1981, when senior vice president Henry Aaron hired him as a minor-league coach — said not to sleep on Donaldson in the field.
“He’d do some things at third base that I’d talk to him all the time about, like, ‘Goodness, how do you do that?’ ” Snitker said. “He played so well there for me . . . I always told him, ‘You probably get your shoulder squared up to first base on slow rollers and balls like that better than anybody I’ve had.’ ”
As for Donaldson’s day-to-day intensity, Snitker said: “I loved getting to know him the person and just what he brought. It’s good when guys show up and they play hard and they’re held accountable and they hold people accountable. He was awesome.”
No signs of a Higgy slowdown
Kyle Higashioka homered twice in the Yankees' rain-shortened 10-0 win over Atlanta, giving him a Grapefruit League-leading seven in nine games.
“Let’s bring some of those north now,” Aaron Boone said with a smile. “He’s in a good spot. He’s confident, and we need him.”
Higashioka is 11-for-23 (.478) with a 1.891 OPS.
Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo also homered for the Yankees.
Sevy big fan of PitchCom
Higashioka and starter Luis Severino — as well as the pitcher who followed him, Nestor Cortes — used the PitchCom device Saturday.
PitchCom is a communication system that involves the catcher wearing a wristband to input pitches (as well as location). A small receiver, located inside the pitcher’s cap, relays the information.
“I like it a lot,” Severino said, noting that a runner on second wouldn’t be able to steal signs and that it would significantly lessen, if not eliminate, the possibility of cross-ups. “I would love to have it for [the regular season].”
Its use in the regular season is scheduled to be voted on early this week.
Scouts: Man-Ban of old
Among the pitchers making an impression on rival scouts assigned to the Yankees has been lefthander Manny Banuelos.
“You never really know what to make of this time of year, but the stuff looks real,” one American League evaluator said. “He’s been really good.”
Banuelos, 31, has allowed two hits and no walks in six innings, striking out seven, and could win a bullpen spot out of camp. If not, at the very least, he has shown himself to be healthy and put himself in position to be among the first considered for a call-up when the inevitable regular-season attrition begins on the pitching staff.
Banuelos, who was signed out of the Mexican League in 2008, had an electric spring training with the Yankees in 2011 as a 19-year-old. He was considered among the top pitching prospects in the sport, and Mariano Rivera added to the hype, calling Banuelos “the best pitching prospect” he’d ever seen.
Because of a slew of injuries, he did not make his big-league debut until 2015, and that was when he was with the Atlanta organization. Banuelos, who signed a minor-league deal in January with the Yankees, threw three scoreless innings Wednesday night against the powerful Blue Jays. His next outing is slated for Tuesday against the Tigers in the Yankees’ Grapefruit League finale.
Yanks acquire Trevino
The Yankees announced early Saturday evening that they had acquired catcher Jose Trevino from the Rangers for righthander Albert Abreu and lefthander Robert Ahlstrom.
The righthanded-hitting Trevino, 29, has a .245/.270/.364 slash line with nine homers in 156 games.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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