Jacobs Deal A Mistake For Royals

Just a day after the completion of the World Series, two teams made a fairly interesting player swap this morning. The Kansas City Royals, looking to improve one of the majors’ worst offensive units, acquired power-hitting infielder Mike Jacobs in exchange for a serviceable reliever, Leo Nunez.

At first glance, one might think this is a steal for the Royals.

Mike Jacobs hit a career-high 32 home runs in 477 at-bats while driving in 93 runs. One of four Marlin infielders to join the 25-home run club, he posted the third-best homer-per-at-bat ratio in baseball, 14.8. Kansas City, meanwhile, ranked near the bottom of the pack with 120 home runs as a team. Even more telling, the club has not had a player hit 30-plus home runs since Jermaine Dye did so back in 2000.

It makes sense, right?

Well, no. The problem is that, while Jacobs hit for some power, he had a poor offensive season overall. The 28-year-old first baseman, due for a big salary boost in arbitration, posted a weak slash stats line of .247/.299/.514 and drew only 36 bases on balls while striking out 119 times. His on-base skills, or lack thereof, have been a serious weakness his entire career (.318 OBP), and the last thing that the Royals need is another consistent outmaking machine added to the lineup.

Did Dayton Moore not learn from his mistakes during the Jose Guillen