MLB's 2014 All-Disappointment Team
Our parents used to tell us growing up that sticks and stones may break our bones but names could never harm us.
That's only partially true.
Nobody likes to be called names, and while professional athletes learn early on how to develop a thick skin and tune out the hecklers that are always present in ballparks around the country, they're still human. The words still sting, even if only a little.
Few things sting as hard—or are as painful—as being called a disappointment does.
To be a disappointment means that you've let your fans, your teammates and yourself down. It's not something that anyone strives for, and in some cases, the fear of disappointing those that depend on you is enough to keep a player from ever falling that far.
But without fail, year-after-year, there are a handful of players at every position that fail to live up to even the most modest of expectations.
For some, the disappointment comes strictly from their on-field performance, while others are faced with a combination of poor performance, both on and off the field, that earns them the distinction.
Who have been the most disappointing MLB players in 2014?
Let's take a look.
Catcher: Jason Castro, Houston Astros
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To his credit, Jason Castro has become a much better pitch-framer than he was a year ago. That's no small feat and is something worthy of recognition.
But it doesn't make up for his stunning collapse at the plate. And when I say stunning, I mean stunning:
| 2013 (120) | .276 | .350 | .485 | .835 | 54 (18) | 56 | 130 |
| 2014 (124) | .221 | .286 | .364 | .650 | 36 (14) | 55 | 84 |
Of all those stats, the nearly 200 point drop in his OPS is the most telling.
Nearly half the time Castro makes contact with the ball, he's keeping it on the ground. That's not exactly a game plan for success for a player with his lack of speed. He's walking less and swinging at more pitches than he ever has before, certainly a factor in his nearly 30 percent strikeout rate.
He's posted a monthly batting average above .237 only once, when he hit .270 in July, only the second (and last) time that Castro had a monthly OPS above .700.
Honorable Mention
Brian McCann (NYY): The game-calling, pitch-framing and power (22 HR) were there, but his .233 batting average and .288 on-base percentage came nowhere near meeting expectations..
Salvador Perez (KC): Prematurely anointed as the game's best young catcher, the 24-year-old has disappeared at the plate for long stretches, including a .228/.234/.345 slash line since the All-Star break.
First Base: Chris Davis, Baltimore Orioles
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It's fair to say that most baseball fans—even Baltimore fans—expected some regression from Chris Davis after he hit .286 with a 1.004 OPS and a MLB-leading 53 home runs and 138 RBI in 2013.
We weren't expecting a sub-.200 batting average or an OPS hovering around .700, but Davis' ugly slash line (.196/.300/.404) isn't why he's the starting first baseman on our All-Disappointment squad.
No, it's the eight playoff games that he's going to miss because Davis decided at some point that, for some reason, he no longer needed an exemption from MLB to take Adderall, as he had received previously.
It's true that the Orioles have held their own without Davis down the stretch in the regular season, but winning in October and winning in September are two completely different things. There's no possible way for manager Buck Showalter to replace Davis' power in the heart of his lineup.
Even if he struck out more often than he put the ball into the stands, Davis was a threat—he was someone that opposing pitchers needed to be concerned with. With all due respect to Steve Pearce, who is having a phenomenal season that nobody saw coming, he's not on Davis' level when it comes to intimidation factor.
Honorable Mention
Prince Fielder (TEX): While we can't blame Fielder for his season-ending neck injury, that doesn't make his first season in Texas any less of a disappointment.
Nick Swisher (CLE): For the second season in a row, neither his power numbers nor his on-base percentage have come close to meeting the expectations Swisher that followed Swisher to Cleveland as a free agent in 2013.
Second Base: Jason Kipnis, Cleveland Indians
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Fresh off his first All-Star appearance in 2013 and signing a six-year, $52.5 million contract extension back in April, Jason Kipnis was expected to be one of Cleveland's biggest run producers in the middle of the lineup.
Instead, injury and inconsistency saw the 27-year-old struggle at the plate, hitting a career-low .241 with only six home runs, 41 RBI and a .644 OPS. Among 16 qualified second baseman, Kipnis' 86 wRC+ ranked 13th while his .332 slugging percentage was worst in the group.
Kipnis has gone from bad to worse defensively, which coupled with Jose Ramirez's emergence, has led to debate among some about whether he should move back to the outfield, which he played in college.
Honorable Mention
Jedd Gyorko (SD): He's failed to build on a strong rookie campaign that saw him finish sixth in the voting for NL Rookie of the Year, battling injury and inconsistency while hitting only .208 with 10 home runs and a .608 OPS.
Brandon Phillips (CIN): Injuries limited his playing time but Phillips has slid at the plate. He's on track to finish the season with his lowest wRC+ (85) and without double-digit home runs for the first time since 2006.
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Shortstop: Stephen Drew
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Note: A previous version of this slide had Troy Tulowitzki as the top disappointment. A change was made to stick to a theme of not penalizing players for injuries.
After holding out until late May, hoping that a team would come along and sign him to a lucrative multi-year deal, Stephen Drew relented and headed back to Boston.
Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as well as they did a season ago, when Drew was an integral part of Boston's World Series-winning club.
He struggled to get going at the plate, hitting only .176 with a .583 OPS for the Red Sox before he was shipped to New York as the July 31 trade deadline arrived. His bat has somehow gotten even colder with a move further south, hitting .155 with a .503 OPS in 43 games wearing pinstripes.
Perhaps even more disappointing has been Drew's defense. While he's a natural shortstop that has primarily been playing out of position at second base, he has been shaky on both sides of the bag, with mediocre fielding percentages and not-so-flattering numbers when looking at advanced metrics.
Drew had a chance to not only re-establish his value heading into free agency, but to stake a claim as the replacement for Derek Jeter at shortstop in the Bronx.
He's failed on both fronts.
Honorable Mention
Everth Cabrera (SD): An All-Star in 2013 before being suspended for 50 games due to his links to the Biogenesis scandal (remember his tearful apology?), Cabrera struggled at the plate (.232 BA, .272 OBP) and got himself arrested in early September for driving under the influence of marijuana.
Troy Tulowitzki (COL): Another MVP-caliber season derailed by yet another leg injury, this time a torn labrum in his left hip. Since 2008, Tulo has missed 247 games due to leg-related injuries, per Baseball Prospectus. His continued inability to stay healthy is disappointing on all fronts.
Third Base: David Wright
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Swimming in a sea of mediocre hitters, David Wright is supposed to be the one constant, consistent force in the middle of New York's lineup. Unfortunately for Wright and the Mets, that wasn't the case this year.
Back in August, as h continued to look like a shell of his former self, manager Terry Collins came to the defense of his All-Star third baseman when asked whether Wright's best years were behind him by the New York Post's Zach Braziller.
"He hasn't had the typical David Wright year. Unfortunately he set a standard pretty high. When you don’t reach that bar each and every year, everybody says, ‘Jeez, he’s going downhill.’ I don’t think that’s true at all. I do believe David Wright will bounce back, whether it’s next week or next year.
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A few weeks later, Wright's season would come to an end as the Mets placed him on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation in his left shoulder, something that had been bothering him since June.
The face of the Mets, Wright failed to crack double-digits in home runs for the first time in his 10-year career and didn't swipe at least 10 bases for the first time since he broke into the big leagues in 2004. His .698 OPS marks a career-low and only the second time that he's failed to produce an OPS above .800.
Honorable Mention
Will Middlebrooks (BOS): Boston traded fan-favorite Kevin Youkilis to Chicago in 2012 so that Middlebrooks could play everyday. Per Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe:
"The Red Sox have played 408 games since and Middlebrooks has been in the starting lineup only 180 times because of injuries and underperformance. Now, at 26, he prepares for an offseason of uncertainty. It would be surprising at this point if the Red Sox do not seek a better alternative at third base, at least in the short term.
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Mike Moustakas (KC): Not even a humbling demotion to the minor leagues in May was able to get the talented-but-perennially underachieving third baseman on a roll; He's hit .234 with a .668 OPS since returning on June 1.
Right Field: Carlos Beltran
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Carlos Beltran was massively disappointing in the first year of his three-year, $45 million deal with the New York Yankees.
Beltran finishes the season with career-lows in batting average (.233) and on-base percentage (.301) while posting a .703 OPS, only the second time since 2006 that he's had an OPS below .830.
Unfortunately limited to only 109 games with bone spurs in his right elbow, his lowest total since the injury plagued end to his career with the New York Mets in 2009 and 2010, Beltran's inability to produce is a big reason why the Yankees missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season (and third since 1995).
Honorable Mention
Jay Bruce (CIN): A MVP candidate a season ago, Bruce never fully recovered from May knee surgery and became a liability for the Reds, both at the plate (.215 BA, .656 OPS) and in the field. It's the first season of his seven-year career in which he's failed to hit at least 21 home runs.
Curtis Granderson (NYM): The team's biggest offseason acquisition, Granderson hasn't provided the kind of power (19 home runs, 62 RBI) that the Mets thought they were getting on a four-year, $60 million deal.
Wil Myers (TB): The 2013 AL Rookie of the Year missed two-and-a-half months in the middle of the season due to a fractured wrist, but he wasn't swinging a hot bat before the injury to begin with. His absence from the lineup and lack of production played a major part in Tampa Bay's collapse.
Center Field: Jackie Bradley Jr.
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Two years ago, Jackie Bradley Jr. was being heralded as the heir apparent to Jacoby Ellsbury in center field for the Boston Red Sox.
Now, after parts of two disappointing seasons in Beantown, the 24-year-old finds himself the odd man out in the team's outfield. The Red Sox signed Rusney Castillo to be the team's everyday center fielder, while he's blocked in the corners by veterans like Yoenis Cespedes and Shane Victorino, among others.
"They say the minors is for developing. I don't really pay attention to it. I know I have the talent to play at this level until I finally stick. I continuously have to work. Even if I do stick, I still have to work," he recently told Mass Live's Jason Mastrodonato.
While Bradley hasn't lost faith in his abilities, it's clear that the Red Sox have, and for good reason.
Despite proving that he's one of the best defensive outfielders around, Bradley Jr. has looked completely overmatched against major league pitching, hitting only .198 while striking out nearly 30 percent of the time.
Honorable Mention
Austin Jackson (DET/SEA): Jackson hasn't provided the Mariners with the spark they were hoping for, hitting only .239/.277/.274 with six extra-base hits since being acquired on July 31 as part of the three-team David Price trade.
B.J. Upton (ATL): Need we say more? It almost seems unfair to include Upton here, considering that nobody expects anything out of him anymore.
Left Field: Josh Hamilton, Los Angeles Angels
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Two years into his five-year, $125 million deal with Los Angeles, the Angels are still waiting for the Josh Hamilton they thought they signed to show up.
There was a glimpse of him to begin the season, when he hit .444 (12-for-27) with four extra-base hits (two home runs), six RBI and a 1.286 OPS over the team's first eight games, but thumb surgery sidelined him for the team's next 48 contests.
He's been unable to get going since his return, hitting only .248 with a .696 OPS. Things got so bad that, in mid-August, he asked manager Mike Scioscia not to include him in the team's lineup for a game because he felt like he was "spinning his wheels."
"Josh is not the same as he was when we were looking in the other dugout in Texas," Scioscia told ESPN Dallas' Calvin Watkins shortly after the request became public. "Right now, he's not in the batter's box with the confidence that we know he has. He's working hard to try to find it."
The search for that confidence continues.
Honorable Mention
Domonic Brown (PHI): A year after making the NL All-Star team and looking like one of the few young pieces that Philadelphia could build around, Brown looks like part of the problem. His 79 wRC+ ranks last among 19 qualified major league left fielders.
Shin-Soo Choo (TEX): Surgery to remove bone spurs in his elbow ended his season in August, but it was an ankle that he injured in April that that really limited Choo in his first year with the Rangers, hitting a career-worst .242. Surgery to repair the ankle has since been scheduled.
Carlos Gonzalez (COL): Like his teammate Troy Tulowitzki, staying healthy for a full season has been nearly impossible for Gonzalez. Limited to only 70 games due to finger surgery and ultimately season-ending knee surgery, CarGo hit a career-worst .238 with a .292 on-base percentage, the lowest marks of his career since his rookie season in 2008.
Designated Hitter:Kendrys Morales, Seattle Mariners
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Kendrys Morales decided to hold out until early June in search of a long-term deal that never materialized, eventually signing a pro-rated one-year pact with the Minnesota Twins. After hitting .234 with one home run and a .584 OPS in 39 games, he was traded to Seattle, the team he spent all of 2013 with.
Things haven't been much better with the Mariners, as Morales has mustered only a .204 batting average, six home runs, 23 RBI and a .270 OPS over 55 games.
"I've hit some balls fairly hard but not gotten any results," Morales recently told MLB.com's Greg Johns through interpreter Fernando Alcala. "I'm also not striking out a lot lately, so I feel like I'm OK recently. But I think everybody knows what I've gone through this year as far as getting a late start and just trying to get situated, so I'm just focusing on going forward."
Going forward, Morales is sure to find limited interest in his services on the open market—just as he did a season ago.
Honorable Mention
Mitch Moreland (TEX): After setting career highs with 22 home runs and 60 RBI in 2013, Moreland mustered only two long balls and 23 RBI in 52 games before undergoing season-ending ankle surgery in mid June.
Left-Handed Starter: CC Sabathia, New York Yankees
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Offseason surgery to remove bone spurs in his left elbow was supposed to find CC Sabathia back on track to pace New York's starting rotation in 2014.
Instead, ineffectiveness, an inability to transition from thrower to pitcher and season-ending surgery on his right knee in mid-June made him one of the game's biggest disappointments on the mound.
Sabathia made only eight starts for the Yankees, allowing at least four earned runs in five of them. His 5.28 ERA and 1.48 WHIP stand as the worst of his career. Perhaps even more damning is this tidbit from Hardball Talk's Aaron Gleeman: "...dating back to last season Sabathia has a 4.87 ERA with 38 homers allowed in 40 starts."
With three years and more than $50 million remaining on his deal, Sabathia has quickly become one of, if not the most expensive question mark in baseball. The Yankees simply cannot rely on him at this point in his career.
Honorable Mention
C.J. Wilson (LAA): Despite his 13-10 record, Wilson leads the American League with 82 walks and has posted the highest ERA (4.61) and WHIP (1.46) of his career since becoming a full-time starter in 2010.
Travis Wood (CHC): An All-Star in 2013 that looked like part of the team's future rotation, Wood has regressed badly, pitching to a 5.03 ERA and 1.53 WHIP over 31 starts.
Right-Handed Starter: Ricky Nolasco, Minnesota Twins
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Signed to the largest free agent contract in franchise history—four years and $49 million—Ricky Nolasco was expected to bring some stability to the front-end of the team's starting rotation, which had been among the game's worst for a number of years.
He hasn't come close to meeting those expectations.
Nolasco has been one of the worst pitchers in baseball this season, going 5-12 with a 5.47 ERA and 1.53 WHIP. He's allowed at least five earned runs in 10 of his 26 starts for the Twins, one more than the number of quality starts that he's delivered (nine).
"It's been a terrible year," Nolasco told Fox Sports North's Tyler Mason. "Just try to finish healthy. That's all I can do. There's nothing I can do to fix it from here on out."
Honorable Mention
Clay Buchholz (BOS): A season removed from looking like one of baseball's elite arms, Buchholz has been downright awful for the Red Sox, pitching to a 5.31 ERA and 1.40 WHIP.
Edwin Jackson (CHC): All you need is the numbers: a 6.38 ERA and 1.65 WHIP.
Ubaldo Jimenez (BAL): Jimenez fell flat in his first season with Baltimore, finding himself removed from the starting rotation at one point and without a guaranteed spot on the team's postseason roster after going 6-9 with a 4.85 ERA and 1.53 WHIP.
Closer: Joe Nathan, Detroit Tigers
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How bad has Joe Nathan been as Detroit's closer in 2014?
Over the past 100 years of baseball, only seven pitchers have logged at least 50 innings of work in the game's final frame at least 50 times in a single season and been less effective than Nathan has been for the Tigers:
| Brad Lidge | 2009 | 62 | 54.1 | 7.12 | 1.73 |
| Shawn Chacon | 2004 | 53 | 50.2 | 6.75 | 1.90 |
| Billy Koch | 2001 | 59 | 54.2 | 5.60 | 1.63 |
| Heathcliff Slocumb | 1997 | 60 | 51.2 | 5.57 | 1.76 |
| Brandon Lyon | 2008 | 54 | 50.1 | 5.54 | 1.63 |
| Dave Veres | 1999 | 63 | 58.2 | 5.37 | 1.64 |
| Brad Lidge | 2006 | 59 | 53.0 | 5.26 | 1.40 |
| Joe Nathan | 2014 | 57 | 53.0 | 5.09 | 1.59 |
If that wasn't bad enough, consider this. Before this season, Nathan's highest ninth-inning ERA came in 2005, when it was 2.82, more than two full runs lower than his current mark.
His inability to lock things down at the end of games is part of the reason that fDetroit finds itself fighting to win its fourth consecutive AL Central title and is far from a favorite to make a deep playoff run.
Honorable Mention
Ernesto Frieri (LAA/PIT): Frieri struggled with the Angels and was traded to Pittsburgh in exchange for another struggling closer, Jason Grilli. Grilli has thrived in middle relief for the Halos, while Frieri's struggles continued, (12 ER in 10.2 innings of work) and was released by the club in early September.
Jim Johnson (OAK/DET): Baseball's save leader in 2012 and 2013, Johnson lasted about a week as Oakland's closer before being replaced and ultimately released. He's been working garbage time for the Tigers, pitching to a 6.39 ERA and 1.50 WHIP in 14 appearances.
Unless otherwise linked/noted, all statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs and are current through games of Sept. 24.
Hit me up on Twitter to talk all things baseball: @RickWeinerBR
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