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Jed Lowrie

Jed Lowrie Announces Retirement

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Former All-Star second baseman Jed Lowrie tells Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle that he’s retiring after 15-year Major League career and a professional career that spanned parts of 18 seasons. Lowrie tells Slusser that he’s “gotten to the point where I listen to my body and when I think about playing another 162, I don’t want to do that.” He adds that he’s looking forward to spending time with his young family and is already an assistant coach with his daughter’s softball team.

Now 38 years old, Lowrie was the No. 45 overall draft pick by the Red Sox back in 2005. The Stanford product reached the Majors three years after being drafted, hitting .258/.339/.400 in 81 games as a rookie with the Sox in 2008. He spent parts of four seasons in Boston before being traded to the Astros in exchange for reliever Mark Melancon.

That stop in Houston wound up being for just one year, as the Astros traded Lowrie to the A’s on the heels of a solid .244/.331/.438 showing and netted Brad Peacock, Chris Carter and Max Stassi in that swap. He’d spend the next two seasons in Oakland, performing at a high level (.272/.334/.405) before reaching free agency and signing back with the Astros. In a full deja vu sequence, Lowrie spent one season in Houston and was traded to Oakland a second time — this time in exchange for righty Brendan McCurry.

Lowrie spent the next three seasons in green and gold, culminating with a 2018 All-Star season that saw him club a career-best 23 home runs. That standout campaign helped Oakland secure a postseason berth, though the 2018 A’s fell to the Yankees in the one-game Wild Card format. Lowrie went on to ink an ill-fated two-year deal with the Mets, with whom he was limited to just nine games due to ongoing knee troubles. Lowrie reached free agency and once again signed with the A’s, making good on a minor league deal and reemerging as the team’s regular second baseman. He signed one final deal with Oakland for the 2022 season but was limited to just 50 games.

Overall, Lowrie spent parts of seven seasons in Oakland, four in Boston, two in Houston and two in New York (though he was on the injured list for the bulk of that time). He’ll retire as a career .257/.330/.406 hitter (103 wRC+) with 121 home runs, 292 doubles, 17 triples, 590 runs scored, 594 runs batted in and eight stolen bases. He made an All-Star team and reached the postseason in six of his 15 seasons as a big leaguer.

Given his obvious talent, he’d surely have further padded those totals had he been able to avoid the injured list with more regularity, but health troubles followed him throughout his career. Lowrie most notably was plagued by a torn ligament in his thumb, a capsule tear in his knee and a broken finger in his right hand, amid several other nagging injuries. It’s easy to wonder what might have been with better health, but Lowrie’s career was still valued nearly 20 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs, and just shy of 16 WAR per Baseball-Reference. He was regularly an average or better hitter when healthy, peaking with particularly big showings at the plate in 2010, 2013 and 2017-18. All told, he banked more than $60MM in salary over the course of his career and will be remembered particularly fondly for his time in Oakland.

What’s next for Lowrie isn’t clear, but he tells Slusser that he “loves the game too much” to simply ride off into the sunset. Lowrie adds that he has a “deep-rooted obsession with seeing the game continue to evolve, continue to get better, continue to promote participation and see it thrive because it’s the best game in the world.” Best wishes to Lowrie in whatever path he takes in the next step of what sounds like a lifelong baseball journey.

Which Remaining Free Agent Hitters Were Shifted The Most In 2022?

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It was announced back in September that Major League Baseball would be implementing some new rules for the 2023 season. One such change will be the limiting of defensive shifts, with teams required to have two infielders on each side of second base and all four on the near side of the outfield grass at the time the pitch is released.

The exact ramifications of these changes will be discovered as the 2023 season progresses, but the hope is that some routine grounders turn into hits instead. Those players who have been shifted the most could stand to reap the most benefit from the new environment. The prototypical example of the hitter that is the most harmed by the shifts has been a plodding and pull-happy left-hander who can be neutralized by having an infielder in deep right field. However, each player is unique and will have been attacked in different ways, so let’s look at the data, with a minimum of 100 plate appearances required to be considered here. Which free agents were shifted the most in 2022? (Quick note that Stephen Vogt has been excluded since he previously announced 2022 would be his last season.)

1.  Rougned Odor – 93.8%
2. Kole Calhoun – 93.4%
3. Zack Collins – 88.9%
4. Brett Phillips – 88%
5. Brandon Belt – 85.2%
6. Mike Ford – 84.6%
7. Jed Lowrie (as a lefty) – 83.5%
8. Robbie Grossman (as a lefty) – 82.6%
9. Michael Perez – 81.8%
10. Mike Moustakas* – 81%
11. Tommy La Stella* – 80.5%
12. Josh VanMeter – 79.7%
13. Luke Voit – 76.9%
14. Colin Moran – 75%
15. Adam Duvall – 71.7%
16. Gary Sánchez – 70.5%
17. Dominic Smith – 70.4%
18. Jackie Bradley Jr. – 64%
19. Jurickson Profar (as a lefty) – 63.8%
20. Didi Gregorius – 60.3%

(* – Moustakas and La Stella technically aren’t free agents right now. However, they were both recently designated for assignment and are likely to be released given their onerous contracts.)

Odor has been quite awful at the plate recently, with his batting average finishing at .207 or below in each of the past four years. However, his batting average on balls in play has been at .244 or below in each of those seasons, well below his earlier career marks and the .290 league average in 2022. Perhaps the shift bans could get him closer to his earlier career number when he hit between .259 and .271.

Belt hit .285/.393/.595 over 2020 and 2021, good enough for a wRC+ of 162 which trailed only Juan Soto and Bryce Harper among all MLB hitters in that time. He was actually shifted more in those two seasons than he was in 2022. Injuries limited him to just 78 games and tepid production this year, but perhaps better health and some more open space on the field could help him return to being one of the best hitters in the league.

As for the rest, some of these guys are role players or aging veterans, but a few of them could be sneaky value pickups in the latter half of the offseason. Like Belt, many of them are coming off disappointing and/or injury-marred years and will be looking to bounce back in 2023. Grossman posted a 118 wRC+ over 2020 and 2021 but just an 82 this year. Voit had a 153 wRC+ in the shortened 2020 season but dipped to 112 and 102 in the past two campaigns. Duvall had a 108 wRC+ over 2019-2021 but an 87 here in 2022. Sánchez recorded a 143 wRC+ in his first two seasons but just a 96 in the following five years, including an 89 in the most recent campaign. Smith posted a huge 150 wRC+ over 2019 and 2020 but has slid to just 82 since. Profar is coming off a decent campaign and is arguably the best free agent still unsigned.

A’s Release Jed Lowrie

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Aug. 11: The A’s announced that Lowrie has been released.

Aug. 10: The Athletics announced a series of roster moves prior to today’s game, recalling left-hander JP Sears and selecting the contract of outfielder Cal Stevenson. In corresponding moves, righty Paul Blackburn has been placed on the 15-day injured list and infielder Jed Lowrie has been designated for assignment. Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle relays word from the team that Blackburn’s injury is an inflamed right middle finger.

Lowrie, 38, is a veteran playing in his 14th MLB season, with seven of the last nine being in Oakland. He signed a two-year deal with the Mets prior to the 2019 season, which turned out to be a disaster as mounting injuries limited Lowrie to just nine games over the course of that contract. He returned to Oakland last year and had a nice bounceback, hitting at a league average rate over 139 games.

The A’s brought him back for 2022 on a modest $850K salary, with a $100K bonus for spending 60 days on the active roster and a $150K bonus for being traded. With Oakland undergoing a massive sell-off during the offseason, it seems like the A’s wanted Lowrie aboard as a competent veteran presence amid their roster of youngsters. If he played well enough to be shipped out for prospects at the deadline, that would have been a nice bonus. Unfortunately, Lowrie has a .180/.245/.263 line on the season for a wRC+ of just 49. Now that the deadline has passed, it seems that the A’s will use the season’s final few months to evaluate younger players, with Lowrie getting nudged out of the picture.

One of those younger players getting a shot for Oakland down the stretch is Stevenson. The 25-year-old was a 10th round pick of the Blue Jays in 2018 but has since been a part of numerous trades. He went to the Astros alongside Aaron Sanchez and Joe Biagini in the 2019 deal for Derek Fisher. Houston then traded him to Tampa in 2020 as part of the Austin Pruitt deal. The Rays sent Stevenson to the A’s last month as part of the return for Christian Bethancourt.

The left-handed hitter has always carried himself well at the plate, posting double-digit walk rates at each of his minor league stops and always getting his wRC+ above 100, indicating above-average production. He first reached Double-A in the Rays’ organization last year, getting into 92 games, walking 15.3% of the time and hitting .254/.368/.403. That amounted to a wRC+ of 118, or 18% above average, with 17 stolen bases thrown in for good measure. This year, he’s been in Triple-A all year, split between the Durham Bulls and the Las Vegas Aviators. In 73 combined games, he’s amazingly walked in 15.3% of his plate appearances again, while hitting .275/.387/.402 for a wRC+ of 113, swiping 15 bags in the process. He’ll get a chance to see how he carries himself against big league pitching over the final few weeks of 2022, before the A’s decide how to proceed with building their roster for next season.

It’s unclear how long Blackburn will be out of action, but it seems like Sears will at least get a couple of turns in the rotation. The 26-year-old Sears was one of the players who came over from the Yankees in the Frankie Montas trade just over a week ago. He pitched in seven games for the Yanks this year but will be making his Oakland by starting today’s game, taking the place of Blackburn, who was the originally scheduled starter.

A’s Designate Adam Kolarek, Option Cristian Pache

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The A’s announced a series of roster moves before tonight’s game in Seattle. Right-hander Adrián Martínez and infielder Vimael Machin have been promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas, as previously reported. Oakland also reinstated outfielder Skye Bolt from the 60-day injured list, placed Jed Lowrie on the 10-day IL due to a left shoulder sprain, and optioned center fielder Cristian Pache and starter Adam Oller to Triple-A. Bolt’s activation required a 40-man roster spot, which has been created by designating reliever Adam Kolarek for assignment.

Kolarek has spent the past couple seasons in Oakland. The A’s acquired him from the Dodgers in February 2021, sending infielder Sheldon Neuse the other way. (Oakland has since reacquired Neuse via waivers). Kolarek has bounced on and off the active roster since that point, making 27 combined appearances. He was tagged for ten runs in nine innings last season, and it’s been a similar struggle thus far in 2022.

Through 17 2/3 innings, the southpaw has posted a 4.58 ERA. Kolarek has struck out only 11.4% of batters faced on a 4.7% swinging strike rate, and he’s walked a personal-high 10.1% of opponents. Kolarek has never missed many bats, but he’s seen his average fastball drop from the 91-92 MPH range down to 88.1 MPH this year. The 33-year-old has also allowed eight runs over 12 2/3 frames with Las Vegas during his optional stints.

Those struggles led the A’s to move on, but Kolarek could still hold some appeal to other clubs. The sidearmer has typically been excellent at handling left-handed opponents. For his career, he’s held southpaws to a pitiful .190/.243/.260 line over 277 plate appearances. Right-handers have teed off at a .311/.383/.490 clip, but that kind of situational dominance made him a productive bullpen option in Los Angeles and Tampa Bay earlier in his career. Kolarek also routinely generates ground-balls at a 60% clip or better, and that’s been the case even as his velocity and swing-and-miss have taken a step back in Oakland.

While Kolarek’s time in the organization could be coming to an end, the A’s are surely hopeful Pache will yet emerge as a member of the long-term core. The 23-year-old was one of four players (arguably the headliner) of the Spring Training return from the Braves for Matt Olson. He’s gone on to start 60 of the team’s 72 games in center field, but his first season in green and gold has been a disappointment.

Pache carries just a .159/.203/.224 line across 214 plate appearances. He’s collected only eight extra-base hits while walking at a subpar 5.1% rate and striking out 26.2% of the time. Of the 206 MLB hitters with at least 200 trips to the plate, Pache ranks last with a 24 wRC+ (suggesting he’s been 76 percentage points worse than the league average batter). The non-competitive A’s continued to give him opportunities to get on track offensively, but his woes have spiraled of late. Dating back to the start of June, he’s collected only six hits and three walks over 19 games.

Of course, Pache has long been a glove-first player. He drew top prospect attention during his time in the Atlanta system based largely on the strength of his defense, which most evaluators suggested could be among the league’s best. Pache has lived up to that reputation early in his MLB days. He ranks fourth among outfielders in Statcast’s Outs Above Average metric this season, checking in seven plays better than par. That kind of ability could make Pache a perennial Gold Glove candidate, but he’ll need to hit far better than he has this season if he’s to earn everyday run in the majors.

The Braves had optioned Pache during both the 2020 and ’21 campaigns. Assuming he spends 20+ days in the minors this year, he’ll exhaust his third and final option year. That means the A’s will need to keep him on the active roster next season, assuming they don’t want to make him available to other teams. Needless to say, organizational higher-ups will hope that this latest reboot against upper minors arms will help him take a step forward at the plate. Pache owns a more serviceable .267/.331/.414 line through 458 Triple-A plate appearances; the A’s would be thrilled if he could come anywhere close to that kind of production in the majors given his defensive acumen.

How quickly Pache returns to the big leagues will depend in large part on how he hits in Las Vegas. Getting back at some point this season would have important service time repercussions, as he’s just shy of reaching a full year of big league service. Pache entered the 2022 campaign with 79 days. Players reach a full service year upon accruing 172 days on an MLB roster or injured list, meaning he needs 93 days this season to surpass the one-year mark. Pache has tallied around 84 days in the majors to this point, so he needs about a week and a half more time in the big leagues in 2022 to keep on track towards a post-2027 free agent trajectory.

While Pache tries to find his footing, the A’s figure to turn center field over to Bolt. The 28-year-old hasn’t played in the big leagues this season due to an oblique strain, but he’ll get the nod in center tonight. Bolt has only 37 games of MLB experience under his belt, but he’s out of options and has to remain on the active roster or be designated for assignment now that he’s healthy.

A’s Activate Jed Lowrie

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The A’s announced they’ve reinstated infielder Jed Lowrie from the COVID-19 injured list. Fellow infielder Kevin Smith, meanwhile, is back from the 10-day injured list. In corresponding moves, Oakland optioned outfielder Mickey McDonald and returned right-hander Ryan Castellani to Triple-A Las Vegas.

Lowrie returns after a 10-day absence. He appeared in seven games before hitting the injured list, seeing action at each of designated hitter, first base and second base. The veteran has collected five hits and three walks through his first 23 trips to the plate. Smith was the A’s primary third baseman for the first couple weeks of the season. He started slow, going 5-31 with two walks and ten strikeouts before hitting the IL with a bone bruise in his left ankle.

Castellani was selected as a COVID “substitute” a couple weeks ago. That designation means Oakland could take him off the 40-man roster as they got healthier without exposing him to waivers. Castellani, who signed a minor league deal over the winter, worked 2 2/3 scoreless innings over three appearances with the big league club. He’ll try to work his back onto the 40-man roster permanently with Las Vegas.

A’s Place Six Players On COVID IL, Promote Three Players

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The A’s announced this evening they’ve placed six players — catcher Austin Allen, infielders Jed Lowrie and Chad Pinder, and pitchers A.J. Puk, Lou Trivino and Kirby Snead — on the COVID-19 injured list. Infielders Nick Allen and Christian Lopes and reliever Sam Selman have been added to the roster as COVID replacements.

Austin Allen, Snead and Puk were already on the restricted list. That’s the procedure for players not vaccinated against COVID-19 for teams traveling to Toronto, where the A’s played a weekend series. They weren’t counting against the 40-man roster at that point, which is why Oakland only brought up three replacements today upon losing Lowrie, Pinder and Trivino.

It’s not clear whether the latter trio of players tested positive or is out due to viral symptoms or contact tracing procedures. They join outfielder Stephen Piscotty on the COVID IL, where he landed last Friday. Under the league’s 2022 health-and-safety protocols, players who test positive are subject to a 10-day absence from the club, though it’s possible to be reinstated in less time if the player has gone 24 or more hours without a fever, received a pair of negative PCR tests, and been given approval from a team physician and the MLB/MLBPA joint committee (a panel of one league-appointed and one union-appointed physician). Players who are experiencing symptoms but do not test positive can return in shorter order if their symptoms abate.

Nick Allen, Lopes and Selman join the active roster as designated “substitute players.” The A’s will be able to send them back to Triple-A Las Vegas without having to pass Lopes or Selman — neither of whom had been on the 40-man roster — through waivers. All three players will at least get a big league look for the next few days as the A’s play without some regulars due to health and safety protocols.

Allen will be making his major league debut if/when he gets into a game. A third-round pick out of a San Diego high school in 2017, he signed for an overslot $2MM bonus and has been one of the better prospects in the Oakland system ever since. Allen has appeared among Baseball America’s list of the A’s top 30 farmhands every year since being drafted, and he currently checks in 7th on the organizational ranking. BA placed a rare 80 grade on his shortstop defense this winter, writing that Allen could be a Gold Glove-caliber defender at the toughest infield position.

Listed at just 5’8″, 166 pounds, Allen predictably doesn’t offer much from a power perspective. Yet if he meets expectations defensively, he won’t need to make much of an impact at the plate to be a viable regular. Allen has also posted a lower than average strikeout rate at every minor league stop, and he’s off to a nice start in 12 games with Las Vegas. Even if his current promotion proves brief, he could unseat veteran Elvis Andrus at some point this year. Andrus hasn’t done much offensively over the past few seasons, although he’s hit very well through this year’s first couple weeks.

Lopes is also up for his first MLB call. The 29-year-old has played ten minor league seasons since being selected in the 7th round of the 2011 draft. A right-handed hitter, Lopes owns a .265/.364/.422 line in parts of five Triple-A campaigns. He has appeared in the Blue Jays, Rangers and Diamondbacks farm systems and signed a minor league deal with Oakland this past offseason. He has experience at all four infield spots and both corner outfield positions, with the overwhelming majority of that time coming at second base.

Athletics Notes: Guerra, Oller, Lowrie

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A’s reliever Deolis Guerra will require surgery after leaving a Cactus League appearance this week due to forearm tightness, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com (Twitter link). The underlying cause of the soreness and the type of procedure he’ll undergo aren’t clear, but forearm tightness can often be a precursor to Tommy John proceeders.

Guerra had looked like one of the sturdier middle innings options for first-year skipper Mark Kotsay. The 32-year-old (33 later this month) is coming off a season in which he logged a personal-high 65 2/3 innings across 53 appearances in his first year in Oakland. Guerra posted a 4.11 ERA, striking out an average 23% of batters faced while only walking 7.4% of opponents. It wasn’t an overpowering showing, but the Venezuela native frequently worked multiple innings out of the ’pen and excelled at avoiding hard contact. Guerra is playing out this year on an $815K salary and is controllable via arbitration through 2024. He”ll accrue big league service for whatever time he spends on the injured list.

More out of Oakland:

  • Kotsay informed right-hander Adam Oller this afternoon that he’ll break camp with the big league club, Gallegos writes. That positions the 27-year-old to make his MLB debut at some point early in the year. The closer to the majors of the two pitching prospects the A’s acquired from the Mets for Chris Bassitt, Oller is a former 20th-round pick out of Northwestern State. Originally selected by the Pirates, he’d also seen time in the Giants organization, in independent ball and in Australia before putting together a breakout 2021 campaign. He made 23 combined starts between the Mets’ top two affiliates, working 120 innings of 3.45 ERA ball with a 27.7% strikeout rate and a 9.4% walk percentage. Baseball America placed him 23rd in the A’s system after he was acquired, writing that his capable three-pitch mix and solid control could make him a back-of-the-rotation starter or long reliever. Kotsay suggested Oller, who is already on Oakland’s 40-man roster, could pitch in either role to begin his big league career. The A’s will be without starters James Kaprielian and Brent Honeywell Jr. to open the year, perhaps leaving a spot for Oller in the season-opening rotation.
  • The A’s recently brought Jed Lowrie back for what’ll be a seventh season in green and gold. The switch-hitting infielder has played almost exclusively second base or designated hitter in recent years. Tony Kemp looks to have earned everyday run at the keystone with a strong 2021 showing, and Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle writes that the A’s have been getting Lowrie some work at first base this spring. The 37-year-old has never started an MLB game at first, but he’s dealt with knee issues lately and didn’t rate well at second last season. Oakland doesn’t have an obvious everyday first baseman on the roster after trading Matt Olson, so manning the position could get Lowrie some extra at-bats.

Athletics Re-Sign Jed Lowrie

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March 28: Lowrie is guaranteed $850K on the deal, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. He’ll also earn a $100K bonus for spending 60 days on the active roster and would receive a $150K assignment bonus if traded. Heyman adds that Stephen Vogt’s one-year deal with the A’s has those same terms.

March 26: The Athletics officially announced the signing.

March 25: The A’s are re-signing Jed Lowrie to a one-year contract, reports Eno Sarris of the Athletic (Twitter link). It’ll be the veteran infielder’s second straight season in green and gold and his seventh year in Oakland over three separate stints. The A’s have a vacancy on their 40-man roster, so no additional move will be necessary. Lowrie is a client of Excel Sports Management.

Oakland is plenty familiar with Lowrie, who has generally been productive while donning an A’s uniform. He posted a wRC+ of at least 120 (offense 20 percentage points above league average) in both 2017 and 2018, picking up an All-Star nod in the latter season. That positioned him to land a two-year, $20MM deal with the Mets that rather infamously went off the rails due to injuries.

Lowrie only took eight trips to the plate as a Met, dragged down for his entire time in Queens by knee issues. He returned to the Oakland organization via minor league deal last winter, and he broke camp with the big league club. His making the roster wasn’t unexpected, but it was surprising the A’s declared him their primary second baseman, a position at which he started on Opening Day.

Former manager Bob Melvin penciled him in at the keystone 69 times over the course of the year, while he saw action in 58 games as the designated hitter. Lowrie’s defensive metrics weren’t great, as one might expect for a 37-year-old middle infielder coming off serious knee trouble. Yet the switch-hitting veteran showed he still had some life in his bat, posting a .245/.318/.398 line with 14 homers in 512 plate appearances. That’s exactly league average offensive production, according to wRC+, and Lowrie’s underlying numbers were solid.

As he’s been throughout his career, Lowrie was patient enough to take pitches outside the strike zone. He made contact on 77.9% of his swings, the lowest mark of his career but still a hair better than average. And Lowrie posted better batted ball marks than his .398 slugging percentage might suggest. He made hard contact (defined as a ball hit 95 MPH or harder) on 45.9% of his balls in play, about ten points higher than the league mark. His 90.3 MPH average exit velocity was a couple ticks above average, as was his 9.3% barrel rate (essentially a measure of how often a batter hits the ball hard at an optimal launch angle for extra-base impact).

The A’s front office and manager Mark Kotsay obviously value Lowrie’s presence in the clubhouse. Between that familiarity and his still capable offensive traits, he earns another guaranteed roster spot in Oakland. It surely won’t be a costly add for the A’s, who have spent most of the winter orchestrating a sell-off to slash payroll. Lowrie isn’t going to make them into a contender, but the recent re-signings of he and Stephen Vogt add a couple highly-regarded veteran role players to an increasingly youthful clubhouse. Tony Kemp seems likely to be the primary second baseman, but Lowrie can work his way onto the field between the keystone, first base and DH.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Free Agent Faceoff: Second Base Battle Royale

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For those teams looking to improve at second base, many free agent options have already gone. Marcus Semien went to the Rangers, Javier Baez to the Tigers, Eduardo Escobar to the Mets, Cesar Hernandez to the Nationals and Rougned Odor to the Orioles. Chris Taylor and Leury Garcia returned to their clubs from 2021, the Dodgers and White Sox, respectively. It seems some people in the industry believe Trevor Story should be moved to second base, but it’s unclear if Story himself agrees with that assessment. It’s also possible that another shortstop could be moved to second, such as Jose Iglesias, though he has only 21 games of second base experience in his career thus far and hasn’t matched Story’s offensive production. For teams looking to upgrade at the keystone, who’s still available to be signed after the lockout?

Josh Harrison, 34, had an awful campaign in 2019 but has been solid over the past two seasons. Over 2020 and 2021, he got into 171 games and hit .279/.343/.402. That amounts to a wRC+ of 104 and 1.8 fWAR. Of those 171 games, he played second base in 114 of them, as well as lesser time at third and shortstop, with brief stints at all three outfield spots and even one inning at first base. Statcast doesn’t like his defensive work at those tertiary positions, but he was worth 8 OAA as a second baseman in 2021.

Jed Lowrie, 38 in April, only played nine games over 2019 and 2020 due to injuries. 2021 was a solid bounceback, however, as he played 139 games, hitting .245/.318/.398, for a wRC+ of 100, exactly league average. However, almost half of those games saw Lowrie slotted in at DH or appear as a pinch hitter, as he only played second base in 71 of them, along with three innings at third.

Donovan Solano, 34, is coming off the best three years of his career. From 2019 to 2021, he played 236 games, hitting .308/.354/.435 for a wRC+ of 114. In most of those games, 172, he appeared at second base, while also seeing some limited action at third and short. Statcast pegged his defense at second base as close to average over those three seasons.

Jonathan Villar, 31 in May, has alternated hot and cold in recent years. In 2019, he hit 24 homers, stole 40 bases and slashed .274/.339/.453 for a wRC+ 107 and 3.9 fWAR. In the shortened 2020 campaign, he hit just two dingers, stole 16 bases and hit .232/.301/.292 for a wRC+ of 65 and -0.3 fWAR. He turned things around again in 2021, with 18 homers, 14 stolen bases and a line of .249/.322/.416, 105 wRC+ and 2.1 fWAR. He only played nine games at second, as the Mets largely used him at third and short. Statcast wasn’t enamored with his defense in 2021, pegging him at -3 OAA overall.

Matt Duffy, 31 in January, had a rough 2019 and couldn’t crack the big leagues in 2020. Signed by the Cubs to a minor league deal prior to the 2021 season, he was able to crack the Opening Day roster and stick with the club all season long, except for a two-month stint on the IL. He got into 97 games and hit .287/.357/.381, for a wRC+ of 102 and 1.5 fWAR. He played 56 games at third, 21 at second, five at shortstop, three in left field, two at first base and even logged one third of an inning on the mound. Statcast graded him as being -4 OAA at second base in that small sample.

Matt Carpenter, 36, had a tremendous run from 2012 to 2018, putting up a wRC+ of at least 117 for seven straight seasons. However, it’s been a straight slide downwards since then. He finished 2018 at 140 but dropped to 96, 85 and 70 over the subsequent three campaigns. His strikeout rate also gradually ticked upwards, from 23.3% in 2018 to 26.2%, 28.4% and 30.9% in the three following years. He played 34 games at second base this year and was considered around average by Statcast. There’s no questioning it’s been a rough few years, but if he could get anywhere near his previous peak, he could be an intriguing bounceback candidate.

Each of these players have warts, but none of them should command a huge financial commitment. Villar was the only one to crack MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents, being predicted to get a contract of $14MM over two years. But which one would you prefer? Have your say in the poll below.

(poll link for app users)

Have Certain Free Agent Former MLB Stars Already Played Their Last Game?

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This year, we’ve seen former quality MLB players such as Joakim Soria, Daniel Murphy, Cody Allen, Nick Markakis, Hector Rondon, Jordan Zimmermann, Welington Castillo, and Nate Jones decide to retire.  All current MLB free agents are experiencing the first work stoppage of their career right now.  Should the lockout end sometime in February, there could be a burst of concentrated free agent signings and trades unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

While that will likely work out just fine for the likes of Carlos Correa, Kris Bryant, and Freddie Freeman, a free agent frenzy could also include a cold shoulder toward former MLB stars nearing the end of their careers.  Instead of putting the finishing touches on rosters with a sprinkling of February or March one-year MLB deals and minor league deals, front offices will be working to acquire many significant star and mid-tier free agents and trade targets when the lockout ends.  It stands to reason that many veterans with declining skills will be told they need to wait even longer before a team is willing to commit.  That could leave former stars without jobs.  Rich Hill has a deal with the Red Sox heading into his age-42 season, but let’s take a look at eight elder statesmen who may at least consider retirement.

  • Albert Pujols: 42 in January, Pujols mashed lefties and gave the Dodgers a veteran presence off the bench this year.  Back in October, he said, “I don’t think my time to retire has come. I don’t want to sit in my house next year, knowing that I can still keep playing.”  Pujols is 21 home runs shy of 700 for his career, and he’d be aided by the addition of the NL DH.
  • Ryan Zimmerman: Zimmerman, 37, had an October send-off at Nationals Park but hasn’t publicly made a decision about retirement.  At a press conference, he said, “Do I want to keep playing? I think I can keep playing. I think I had a really good year with the role that I was supposed to do, and now it’s a decision of whether I want to keep doing that, or do I want to be around my family a little bit more. I think the only thing I kind of told Davey is I started the season around 50/50 and it hasn’t gone up.”  GM Mike Rizzo said Zimmerman has an MLB contract with the team as long as he wants it.
  • Brett Gardner: Gardner, 38, scuffled with the bat this year but wasn’t much worse than he was in 2016 or ’18.  He wants to return to the Yankees in 2022, but chose a $1.15MM buyout over a $2.3MM player option.
  • Nelson Cruz: Cruz, 41, has been defying age for many years but managed only a 96 wRC+ in 238 plate appearances after a trade to the Rays.  Before the season, Cruz said “retirement is not on my mind,” and now he might have the chance to DH in the National League.  Cruz is tied with Jeff Bagwell and Vladimir Guerrero at 40th on the all-time home run leaderboard with 449.  It’s easy to see Cruz striving for the 500 club, which currently has 28 members.
  • Jed Lowrie: Lowrie, 38 in April, played only nine games from 2019-20, encompassing his contract with the Mets.  This year, surprisingly, he played 139 games for the A’s.  Lowrie struggled in the season’s final two months, but thus far he’s given no indication he’s looking to retire.
  • Zack Greinke: Greinke, 38, gave up 20 earned runs over 15 1/3 innings in his final four regular season appearances, ballooning his ERA from 3.41 to 4.16.  He battled through COVID-19 and neck soreness, but capped his season by giving the Astros four scoreless innings to start Game 4 of the World Series.  Asked after the game if he wants to continue playing, Greinke declined to answer.  Back in March, Greinke said, “Hopefully, I’ll pitch a lot longer still, but a lot of things come into play on whether you’re allowed to pitch as long as you want to and stuff.”
  • J.A. Happ: Happ, 39, posted a 6.77 ERA in 19 starts for the Twins, but managed a 4.00 mark in 11 outings after being traded to the Cardinals.  He’s given no indication about retirement.
  • Jon Lester: Lester, 38 in January, also pitched better upon a trade to the Cardinals this year.  Asked in September about playing in 2022, Lester was reportedly noncommittal.  He reached his 200th career win on September 20th.
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