In the wake of the news about Manny Ramirez, we're reminded yet again that Adam Dunn and Bobby Abreu are still out there, too. Granted, all three are less than stellar defensive players. But as Joe Sheehan points out, there's been a position invented for guys like them. Literally:
When you think about it, though, Ramirez's inability to find a contract that suits him, and the similar situations faced by Adam Dunn and Bobby Abreu, is fairly nonsensical. The three are the last men standing among the deep class of "corner outfielders who can hit but not field" that graced the market this winter, with Raul Ibaņez, Pat Burrell, and Milton Bradley having already inked deals with new teams. Every one of these players, save perhaps the aging Ibaņez, is qualified to play a position that many AL teams have struggled to fill, a position that has a short list of qualifications: Hit. Yet many teams suffer through subpar performance from their designated hitters, and in some cases they act as if the position requires skills other than simply being able to rake.--snip--
The average American League batter hit .268/.336/.420. Four AL teams couldn't match any of those three figures from a position at which there's no defensive requirement whatsoever. Eight AL teams got subpar OBPs from their DH slot, which seems like a good way to torpedo your offense. If you were to pick your DH entirely based on their ability to not make outs, you'd be ahead of the game in the American League.
We can make excuses all day -- Travis Hafner fell off a cliff, possibly due to injuries; Billy Butler was a disappointment; Matt Stairs might be done; Gary Sheffield, too -- but this is the easiest position to fill on a baseball diamond, and a significant number of AL teams are simply not grasping the concept.
Some of these situations have improved this winter -- the Rays signed Burrell to be their full-time DH, and the Blue Jays will probably use some combination of Adam Lind and Travis Snider there in 2009 -- but many haven't. The Tigers are still hoping that Sheffield's contract will bounce back and be productive; the Angels don't have an identifiable DH at the moment, but only Vladimir Guerrero, among the rostered options, would hit enough to carry the spot. (Spare me the Juan Rivera silliness; he's 30 and has two partial seasons of viability in his career, just one since 2004.)
--snip--
It's good that teams now calculate and account for the defensive cost of players such as these three, and that, in fact, is the biggest reason why all remain unsigned. However, the presence of the DH slot in the AL makes that accounting moot, leaving only the question of offense. Some AL team is going to have the light bulb go on, and the one that does is going to play more than 162 games this year. That's the kind of impact these bats can have.
I've written about the Angels, and Joe is right about the Tigers. One little problem, though: Gary Sheffield. Now, you know and I know that the Tigers should consider Sheffield's $14 million salary in 2009 a sunk cost … but that's easy for us to say. It's also easy for us to say that Sheffield -- and the Tigers' now-gaping hole at DH -- represents yet another object lesson in the folly of committing great gobs of money to players in their late 30s.
But you know, whatever. Maybe the Tigers are fine with finishing behind the Royals again. And to be fair, we don't have a great sense of how much money it would take to actually sign Abreu or Dunn. Maybe they and their agents simply haven't accepted what a non-fielding hitter is really worth these days.
Rob Neyer
