Eight MLB players whose sour seasons doomed their teams
As September arrives, the Giants are clinging to playoff hopes in the absence of injured right fielder Hunter Pence.
While one player wouldn’t seem to have such an undue effect on his team’s winning and losing, consider this: San Francisco has won two of every three games Pence has started this year (34-17, .667), but after last night’s 14-inning loss to Los Angeles, the club is only 35-45 (.438) when Pence hasn’t started, due to a series of injuries: broken forearm, sore wrist and presently an oblique strain.
The Giants now trail the Dodgers by 4 1/2 games in the division and the Cubs by 5 1/2 games for the second wild card, as Pence isn’t yet close to going on a rehab assignment. He has nine homers and an OPS over .800 whereas San Francisco has been unable to replicate that production with its series of fill-ins, who collectively have an OPS under .700.
San Francisco still has time to rally for a postseason berth. Other teams aren't so fortunate. Paste BN Sports looks at several players whose injuries or slumps helped doom their teams’ seasons:
Fernando Rodney, (ex-)Mariners closer
The standard for the AL’s second-wild card is pretty low. The Mariners, at 61-71, are only eight games off the pace; they realistically won’t make a run at it, but it’s close enough to make you wonder what could have been. Rodney blew six saves, after which Seattle lost four of those games, and he also lost four games after he entered with a tied score. His 5.68 ERA in Seattle was his worst since 2003. (No wonder he went into hiding.)
Relief pitcher perfection is rare — even Rodney was only 48-of-50 when he had his 0.60 ERA in his All-Star 2012 season — but if he had only lost, say, six of the eight games he was largely responsible for, then Seattle would be right in the playoff mix and general manager Jack Zduriencik would still be employed. Rodney has since been designated for assignment and claimed by the Cubs.
Rick Porcello, Red Sox SP
It was tempting to say the entire Red Sox roster torpedoed the Red Sox’ season, but the man nominally an ace — and about to be compensated as one when his four-year, $82.5-million extension kicks in next season — has been Boston’s worst starter, as judged by his 6-11 record, 5.46 ERA and his .293 batting average against. Known as a ground ball pitcher, Porcello has only induced grounders 44.2% of the time this season, 6% below his previous career worst. That's a recipe for disaster at Fenway Park.
Miguel Cabrera, Tigers 1B
Cabrera is quietly having one of the best seasons of his career. Before going 1 for his last 14, he was batting .370 with a .473 on-base percentage and 1.084 OPS — all on target for career bests. Unfortunately for him and for the Tigers, he suffered an ill-timed left calf strain injury on July 3. He subsequently missed 35 games, during which Detroit went 15-20, lost 7 1/2 games in the standings, traded away veterans David Price and Yoenis Cespedes at the trade deadline and released team president David Dombrowski from his contract. It speaks to Cabrera's import that a one-month absence could have such a profound impact on the franchise.
Kyle Lohse and Matt Garza, Brewers SPs
It’s hard to blame only one of the Brewers’ veteran starters. Lohse is 5-13 with a 6.27 ERA and baseball’s worst home-run-allowed rate; he has since been banished to the bullpen. Garza is 6-14 with a 5.56 ERA and the NL’s second-worst strikeout-to-walk ratio among qualified starters. Milwaukee is 15-31 in games they started while the two make $32.5 million this year, which is just shy of a third of the franchise’s Opening Day payroll.
Ian Desmond, Nationals SS
The bevy of Nationals injuries this season have been brutal, but so too was Desmond’s first half of the season when he had a .211 average and a .589 OPS at the plate. That’s not to mention his shaky fielding, either, when he made eight errors in his first 12 games and had a .917 fielding percentage in April. For the year, he’s made 23 errors and has a .956 fielding percentage that ranks 23rd of 24 qualifiers; the league-wide standard is .973. And now the Nationals are 6 1/2 games behind the New York Mets in the NL East, and just two games over .500.
A.J. Preller, Padres GM
OK, so Preller didn't take the field this season, but his winter spent collecting bold-named ballplayers was a daring gambit, and it failed. Preller acquired, mostly via trades, Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Craig Kimbrel, James Shields, Derek Norris, Will Middlebrooks, Melvin Upton Jr. and Brandon Morrow. The cost? Baseball America reduced the Padres’ organizational talent ranking from 6th on Opening Day last year to 24th this year. What does he have to show for it? The club’s record is three games under .500, with Justin Upton and Ian Kennedy set to be a free agent and several undesirable contracts (Kemp, Shields, Melvin Upton) remaining on the books.
Brett Lawrie, Athletics 3B
Lawrie’s inclusion may be a little unfair because Oakland’s poor season is not his fault, per se, but largely what the third baseman represents: the absence of Josh Donaldson.
Last winter, Oakland traded Donaldson to Toronto for Lawrie and pitchers Kendall Graveman and Sean Nolin. All Donaldson has done in his new environs is batting .301 with 36 home runs while leading the majors with 108 RBIs, 101 runs and 72 extra-base hits; add in his well-above average defense and he’s an MVP candidate.
Graverman has had league-average results in the big leagues, while Nolin has pitched well at Class AAA, but they are already 24 and 25 years old and thus don’t project as huge prospects. If Lawrie, who once upon a time was a blue-chip prospect, had broken out this season, the valuation of this trade might be different. Instead, he has played slightly below average defense, according to the Fielding Bible, and has an OPS 20 points below a league-average third baseman.
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