Rondell White came crashing to the left field turf yesterday, and at the same time he most likely ended his career as a Tiger. He’s undergoing an MRI today, but there stands a good chance that his season is over. And unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the Tigers are likely to resign him. With that, let’s take a look at what White brought to the Tigers the last two years.
He played 218 games – starting 211 of them – and posted a very respectable .290/.342/.470 line. He banged out 31 homers and drove in 120 runs. This season he has been one of the Tigers most consistent offensive performer hitting 313/347/489. He is tied for the team lead in Win Shares with 13, with 12 of the win shares coming from his offense. He’s among the league leaders this year in batting average with runners in scoring position at .364. His run created total is 65 this year, combined with his 69 from last year means he has been responsible for about 9.8% of their offense.
Defensively Rondell does not have a good arm, and that was before he developed the tendonitis in his shoulder that forced him into regular DH duty. But his gimpy shoulder, and his older legs didn’t keep him from getting to a lot of balls. His ZR of .921 is tops amongst left fielders with more than 500 innings this year.
And then there is the clubhouse presence. I’m not really sure how much that translates to wins and losses, but Rondell has been pretty much universally praised for his leadership in the clubhouse. Craig Monroe, Chris Shelton, Nook Logan, and others have talked about how much they have learned from being around White. While other Tigers have been more vocal in the media, or cause other commotion, Rondell just seemed to come to work each day and bust his tail. Which is why it is unfortunate that White hurt himself on a hustle play after giving the team a lead with a first inning homer.
So when Tiger fans are talking about White’s salary coming off the books, keep in mind that there is a fair amount of production to replace as well.
Now this is a horrible way for it to happen, but Curtis Granderson should stand to get White’s playing time. Granderson has been tearing up the International League hitting 290/359/515 with a triple double in extra basehits. He’ll be a lefthanded bat in a lineup that is heavily right handed. It will be a great opportunity to get him some extended big league playing time and find out if he can handle centerfield at Comerica Park.
Rondell is a great guy, but it isn’t the biggest loss to the team. He’s probably about average in terms of offensive production for a corner OF and he is below average considering his very weak arm. He’s also over the hill and had no long term future with the club. And whatever benefit Rondell has to a lineup is mitigated by the amount of games he misses every year. Paying a guy for a roster spot isn’t quite so nice when he misses 1/4 of the games.
Granderson on the other hand has a very bright future and is probably one of the top 25 or 50 prospects in all of baseball. He should have a starting job from day 1 next year.
As a Tigers fan, I’ll always be grateful to White, Fernando Vina, and Pudge for signing with Detroit after their historically bad 2003 season. Sure, the money had something to do with it (and White played for other bad teams, like the Royals), but those free agents coming to Detroit brought some legitimacy to the team and hopefully paved the way for future big signings.
Agreed
its seem they took a dive after losing farnsworth