DUNEDIN — Josh Donaldson hasn't quite gotten used to seeing a reflection of himself in the bright blue hue of a Blue Jays uniform.
"It matches the eyes," he quipped Tuesday.
Acquired from Oakland in November for third baseman Brett Lawrie and three other players, Donaldson was drafted by the Cubs in 2007 and was traded to the Athletics a year later. He spent all four of his big-league seasons with Oakland, becoming an All-Star last year.
"I wasn't really expecting it," Donaldson said of the trade, "But kind of after thinking about it for a little while, I really think that this is going to be more beneficial to me and my career."
Donaldson hit .255 with a career-high 29 homers and 98 RBIs last season and likely will join Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and fellow newcomer Russell Martin in the middle of the batting order.
A series of injuries limited Lawrie to 70 games last season, including just four innings over the final three months. Donaldson played 158 games in both 2013 and '14.
"I believe that's your sixth tool," Donaldson said. "Everybody talks about having five tools, I think the sixth tool is being able to stay on the field, because if you're not able to stay on the field, you're not able to benefit your club that day."
Yankees: A-Rod, new 3B hug it out
TAMPA — Alex Rodriguez started his second day of workouts at the Yankees' minor-league complex by hugging Chase Headley, the player signed to replace him at third base.
"He's an excellent addition to our team," Rodriguez said. "He had some questions, stuff about hitting, baseball dialogue. That's my wheel house. It was great."
Suspended for violations of baseball's drug agreement and labor contract, Rodriguez missed last season. Yankees manager Joe Girardi and general manager Brian Cashman say Headley will be their starting third baseman and Rodriguez will compete for at-bats at designated hitter.
"If I thought that I was coming here as a first baseman or a leftfielder or whatever, that wouldn't have made sense for me," Headley said.
Rodriguez walked onto the main field, where around a dozen other position players were stretching along the rightfield line, two days before full-squad workouts start at the major-league complex at Steinbrenner Field, a little more than a mile away. A-Rod headed to Headley for the warm greeting.
"We just started the process of getting to know each other better," Headley said. "It was great to meet him and talk baseball a little bit."
Phillies: OF Brown seeking rebound
CLEARWATER — Phillies OF Domonic Brown said he has a "really different mind-set" heading into this spring.
The Pasco High graduate, coming off of a poor 2014 season, said he entered workouts at Bright House Field "just staying positive every single day," according to philly.com.
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Explore all your optionsBrown hit .235 with 10 home runs, 63 RBIs and a combined on-base plus slugging of .634, a big dip from his All-Star 2013 campaign when he hit .272 with 27 homers, 83 RBIs and a .818 OPS.
That decline was part of a last-place finish for Philadelphia in the NL East.
"Usually the Phillie way (is) playing hard, running balls out, taking the extra base," he said. "We weren't doing those little things last year, and I want to make sure that everybody's on the same page to do those little things to win baseball games because we had that just a short period of time ago."