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TORONTO — Josh Donaldson likely knew what he wanted heading into free agency, and it wasn’t the best deal possible.

He wanted a chance to bet on himself, a mulligan if you will.

Less than two weeks before his 33rd birthday, Donaldson wants a free-agent market do-over one year from now, and that’s exactly what he’ll get after agreeing to a reported one-year deal with the Atlanta Braves for $23 million.

That’s the exact same salary he earned in 2018 for playing all of 52 games — just 36 with the Blue Jays — and going out and putting up a disappointing .246/.352/.449 slash line with just eight home runs while battling recurring shoulder and calf injuries from the get-go.

Forty-six million bucks for two seasons is a pretty good haul for Donaldson, but the Braves will obviously be hoping for more production than what the Jays got for $23 million.

Donaldson didn’t slow-play the market to see what it holds, likely because the ultra-competitive third baseman had no interest in a two or three year pact at what he believes would be a discounted price.

Just like he did in February when he shelved any sort of negotiations with the Blue Jays after the two sides weren’t in the “same ballpark,” Donaldson is doubling down on his bat and his body answering all of the questions surrounding him with the goal of securing a longer-term deal next winter.

What that deal could look like is anybody’s guess.

Coming off of last year’s free-agent freeze and less than a month into this year’s open market, there’s currently no indication the dam is about to break.

Donaldson will be hitting free agency again heading into his age-34 season, and he’s potentially going to be alongside two other premier hot corner options in free-agents-to-be Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies and Anthony Rendon of the Washington Nationals.

But if he’s able to put up typical Donaldson numbers in 2019, which is what everyone expected this past summer, then he’ll at least have the leverage to seek what he wants, even if that doesn’t mean he’ll get it.

Leverage is the reason the Blue Jays are now watching their former superstar sign with the team led by their former GM, the one who originally brought Donaldson to Toronto in the first place, without draft pick compensation.

Forget about what the Jays could’ve gotten for the former MVP last winter or even at the trade deadline had he been healthy, the decision to take what was on the table at the Aug. 31 waiver deadline said a lot.

It said the Jays preferred 27-year-old Julian Merryweather, a right-hander coming off Tommy John surgery, to the potential compensation pick — likely somewhere in the range of pick 70-80 next June — that would’ve come back had they kept Donaldson and given him a qualifying offer at the end of the season.

There was also a real worry that Donaldson would simply accept the Jays’ QO, which would’ve locked him into one more season in Toronto at $17.9 million.

With the compensation attached dragging down his market, he may have done just that, especially because Donaldson and his MVP Sports Group agents would’ve needed to decide by Nov. 12.

The Blue Jays wanted to wash their hands of the entire situation, that’s how much the relationship had soured.

A fresh start with a clubhouse full of kids was preferable to having Donaldson return and potentially improve the trade return at next summer’s trade deadline.

In this scenario, everyone got what they wanted once it was clear Donaldson’s value was in the sewer and the return was going to be a fraction of what it could have been.

Agree or not, the Jays got an arm they like in Merryweather, a value they thought superseded that of the potential compensation pick.

Donaldson, meanwhile, gets a nice chunk of change and a chance to do it again, this time on a legitimate contender.

Not to mention Alex Anthopoulos, who adds a motivated player with a chip on his shoulder to his up-and-coming club for nothing but a boatload of Benjamins with zero risk attached.