New York Yankees fans react as reviled Josh Donaldson leaves game against Philadelphia Phillies with hamstring tightness: "Fate doing what GM can’t"

New York Yankees fans have been howling for the team to get third baseman Josh Donaldson out of the lineup – and, if possible, out of the Big Apple altogether.

What Yankees management refused to do may instead be handled by health. Donaldson pulled up while jogging to first base during Wednesday's rainy afternoon game against the Philadelphia Phillies. He went to the dugout and was replaced at third base by Isaiah Kiner-Falefo, who is nearly as loathed by Yankees fans.

Donaldson was diagnosed as day-to-day with right hamstring tightness.

Josh Donaldson, nearly a decade removed from being the American League's MVP in 2015 with the Toronto Blue Jays, is a shell of the player who made three consecutive All-Star Game appearances from 2014-2016. He is hitting just .219 with 16 home runs and 63 RBIs in 136 games with the New York Yankees since the start of the 2022 season.

Yankee fans were begging him to retire before this season, rather than having the 37-year-old trundle through another campaign in the Bronx. However, Donaldson returned for the final season of a four-year, $92 million contract, where the team would have saved $27 million to put towards better on-field expenditures had he hung up his cleats.

Needless to say, along with outfielder Aaron Hicks, Donaldson is among the least-popular Yankees in recent memory. Many New Yorkers did not even attempt to feign sympathy upon hearing of Donaldson's injury.

While the New York Yankees are on the hook for what they owe Josh Donaldson this season, the members of Yankee Nation are overwhelming in their hopes that Wednesday afternoon could possibly be the final time they have to see him in their beloved pinstripes.

There is absolutely zero love lost for Donaldson in New York.

New York Yankees/Josh Donaldson a match made in hell

Josh Donaldson

Josh Donaldson was one of MLB's top offensive forces through the bulk of the 2010s with the Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays. However, his big bat was already in decline for two seasons with the Minnesota Twins before they dealt him – and his contract – along with Kiner-Falefa to the New York Yankees in March 2022.