By Matthew T.F. Harrington

When Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson steps into the O.Co Coliseum batter’s box for the first time as a visiting player against Kendall Graveman Tuesday night, it will be a moment months in the making.

The earth has long since stopped shaking since a ground shattering trade that saw A’s general manager sned the Oakland A’s most feared slugger in exchange for Graveman, starting third baseman Brett Lawrie and prospects Sean Nolin and Franklin Barreto in the offseason. That doesn’t mean the wound won’t still be fresh for A’s fans.

Donaldson has put up similar stats North of Border to the ones he produced for four seasons in Oakland, which is to say he’s been MVP-caliber for the Jays. Donaldson is fresh off his second-straight All-Star game appearance, hitting second for the American League in its 6-3 victory over the Senior Circuit Squad in Cincinnati.

The 29-year old is hitting .288 for the season after 92 games, is one shy of the AL lead in runs batted in with 62 and sits five homers back of Mike Trout’s 27 for the league lead in long balls. Not bad for a player making only $4.5 million dollars.

On its exterior, the trade looks like a clear win for the Jays, who added a power bat to line-up already loaded with thumpers like Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Russell Martin. But the return for Donaldson hasn’t exactly been failing the A’s.

If Cy Young Awards were handed out in Spring Training, Graveman would have been a candidate. The 24-year-old righty owned the desert competition, going 3-1 with a miniscule 0.36 earned run over 25 1/3 innings. If they handed out the awards in April, he’d probably have been last on the list. Graveman compiled an 8.27 ERA, walking 9 while striking out only 7 over 16 1/3 innings. It was clear that Graveman wasn’t ready for the major leagues just yet, so a return to Triple A Nashville was in the cards for the young hurler.

Perhaps not. Graveman returned to the parent club in late May, and has been lights out ever since. In ten starts, he’s gone at least 5 2/3 innings every time. He’s allowed only 16 runs in his second tour of duty, and had managed to shrink his ERA to 3.16 prior to his last outing where he was touched up for 4 runs. He’s ERA since returning is sub-3.00. More importantly, he’s only walked 18 while punching out 44 batters.

While Brett Lawrie, the other main piece of the trade, hasn’t produced like Donaldson did, no one has asked him to. Lawrie, a former first round pick (16^th overall in 2008), hasn’t lived up to the hype that followed him before he even played a professional game, but he hasn’t been a slouch either.

The Langley, British Columbia native is on track for career-highs in most offensive categories including homers (current 8, high 12), RBI (37, high 48) and most importantly for the oft-injured Canadian, games played (88, high 125). While he won’t match his rookie season batting average of .293 over 43 games in 2011, he’s on pace to best his full-season high of .273. The right-handed batter enters play Tuesday with a .280 mark. While he hasn’t been outstanding, he’s been better than expected.

Factor in Barreto, named to the MLB.com weekly all-prospect team, and Nolin still being at least a season away and the A’s could wind up being big winners in this trade. They may not feel like it now, but a rotation with Nolin and Graveman at the head and Barreto and Lawrie on the left side of the infield winning an AL West title, and possibly even the pennant, may be on the horizon soon. But first comes Tuesday night, a chance for the A’s to top the Jays and win a little victory.