Donaldson excited to 'cause a little trouble' in 2nd season with Jays

On Thursday morning, the reigning American League MVP arrived at the Toronto Blue Jays' spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla., flipped his cap backwards, and told the assembled media to expect a lot of offense at Rogers Centre once again this summer.

"Pretty excited to be back with the boys and cause a little trouble," said Josh Donaldson, the third baseman who spent his winter collecting various awards and making a cameo on the TV show "Vikings".

Last year, in his first season with the Blue Jays, Donaldson enjoyed a tour de force performance as the No. 2 hitter in a lineup that plated 127 more runs than the next-best offensive team. All of the principal characters from that lineup - namely Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Troy Tulowitzki, and Russell Martin - will be back this year too, giving opposing pitchers another chance to figure out the offense that carried the Blue Jays to their first division title since 1993 a few months back.

"I mean… Jesus. It just keeps going, you know what I mean?" Donaldson quipped. "I wouldn’t want to pitch against us."

Donaldson, transported from Oakland to the hitter-friendly confines of Toronto, smashed 41 homers with a .939 OPS (155 OPS+) in 2015, while leading the American League in both runs scored (122) and batted in (123). Along with Bautista and Encarnacion, the 30-year-old made the Blue Jays just the fourth team ever to have three players with at least 39 homers. Opposing pitchers, he said, were often beat before even getting their signs.

"There was a lot of guys last year that we faced who were defeated before they even threw the first pitch," Donaldson said. "And those guys made their exit pretty quick.

In all likelihood, that won't change in 2016. According to the projection models at Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus, the Blue Jays are expected to score the most runs in baseball for a second straight season.

"I'm looking forward to having another good year," he said.