Remember that his best years came during the end of the steroid era, and his .787 OPS from 25-28 compares favorably with Reyes' .815 during the same age range (with his injury in the middle). Still, he's like Jose Reyes at 90%, my point was that his games played and percentage decline is a good comp. He only played 2 seasons out of 5 completing 100+ games after 28, and while he was on the field he was quite good, but the problem is he was paid 15 million for a .687 OPS in 2007 when he played hurt, and 15 million in 2008 when he was too hurt to play more than 36 games.
Reyes is better, but he's still the same template in terms of physical condition and position played, whereas Ricky played much more lenient positions (Center and mostly Left). It's not just the triples that turn into doubles; it's the doubles that turn into singles and the infield hits that dry up, so that he goes from being a .300/.355/.470 guy to a .290/.345/.420 guy. I see more years like 2010 for Reyes in the future than years like 2011. That's still pretty good for a shortstop, but his defense has already gone from great to mediocre and if his hamstrings continue to pop, that will likely slip further. I don't want to be the team devoting 20% of the payroll to a guy who's a little better than Brendan Ryan (when you count defense).
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