Photo courtesy: Twitter @Baseball_ref

Josh Donaldson needs to apologize for insulting Gerrit Cole and insinuating the New York Yankees ace is a cheater.

Oh, Josh Donaldson.

Poor, sweet, innocent, guilty-of-running-his-mouth-too-much Josh Donaldson.

I mean, seriously. Did we really think this would play out any differently? Is he even aware that he owes Gerrit Cole and the New York Yankees an apology?

First, a quick refresher. A strong majority of MLB pitchers have allegedly been messing with the baseball to improve their pitches’ spin rate, and some minor league arms were recently suspended for it. Speaking to reporters, Donaldson implied Cole could also be cheating since his spin rate went down in the start he made not long after the minor league suspensions.

As fate would have it, Donaldson’s Minnesota Twins faced Cole’s New York Yankees on Wednesday and lost 9-6. Surely, a former MVP in Donaldson had some hand in the offensive burst?

Survey says:

In reality, Gerrit Cole did his best Iron Sheik impression. He didn’t put Donaldson in the Camel Clutch and make him humble, but he came pretty close.

After all his big talk, Josh Donaldson went 0 for 5 on the night. Against Cole, he was 0 for 3 and struck out swinging twice.

Josh, we will now wait kindly for you to apologize to Gerrit Cole. It’s not bad enough that you implied he was cheating. No, you basically said, “Well, his spin rate was down and he lost after some minor leaguers were suspended, so he’s definitely cheating.”

Sorry, that’s not how things work in New York. If you open your mouth and say something stupid and then look stupid after, you own it. You hold yourself accountable and don’t double down. In this case, Josh Donaldson has been oddly silent since Cole made him look like a minor league call-up.

There’s really nothing else left to say. Josh Donaldson is a one-time MVP who plays for a snakebit team that’s been snakebit for the last 20 years, and will probably continue to be until the end of time.

Apologize, Josh. It’ll make your slow descent into obscurity and irrelevance less painful.

-Follow ESNY - Elite Sports NY on Google News to keep up with the latest New York sports news.

Josh Benjamin
Josh Benjamin has been a staff writer at ESNY since 2018. He has had opinions about everything, especially the Yankees and Knicks. He co-hosts the “Bleacher Creatures” podcast and is always looking for new pieces of sports history to uncover, usually with a Yankee Tavern chicken parm sub in hand.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR