February 01, 2007
Awesome for Austin
The Washington Nationals made Austin Kearns a rich man today:
Right fielder Austin Kearns and the Washington Nationals agreed Thursday to a three-year contract that guarantees him $17.5 million, adding a long-term piece to the team's rebuilding effort.
"I don't think there's going to be a better place to be very soon," Kearns said. "I feel comfortable here and I feel good about where it's going."
Injuries caused Kearns career to be less than was expected. Still he's 27, has a good OBA, and if he stayed healthy for a year might put up good numbers. It's tough to base the middle of your order on Austin and Nick Johnson, since you don't know how long they'll last. But this has the chance of being a very cost effective signing for the Nationals.
Kearns and Johnson are certainly middle-of-the-order talents, but basing your lineup on two injury-prone players is sort of like, well, basing your rotation on Mark Prior and Kerry Wood.
Then again, what else do the Nationals have to choose from?
It's hard when your lead-off hitter--who led your team in home runs last year--signs elsewhere for 2007 and then you expect Kearns and Johnson to fill the power void. Ouch!
Word is Felipe Lopez is slated to take over the reigns at the top of the order in 2007 too.
Color me surprised. Kearns is in his year 27 season and was facing free agency; that's a pretty good recipe for a career year. I would think he could have found a much bigger payday than this after the season. Good deal for the Nats, I'd say.
I know Kearns has missed time over the years, but I always thought the more relevant point was the way his development was consistently mismanaged by the Reds. Anybody care to corroborate/debunk this?
He had a good initial MLB callup in 2002 at the age of 22, putting up a 907 OPS over 107 games and finishing 3rd in NL ROY voting. Yet despite that, he still put in significant time in the minors in 2003, 2004, and 2005, leading many to suggest that the Reds were stifling his development by refusing to commit an MLB job to a guy who had earned it three full seasons earlier.
I suppose the 2002 stats could be a small sample size deviation, since he's never reached that level of OPS again, but 2006 was also his first full season in the bigs, and there again he was forced to split time between two teams, which presumably could have affected his on-field production.
All I'm saying is this seems like a guy who might have a lot of really good baseball ahead of him. Final thought: Baseball Reference has his top 2 comparables through Age 26 as Frank Thomas and Larry Walker.
TK, i have to agree with you. although i really cant say how the Reds "mis-managed" Kearns, or if he will become the next Larry Walker; i will admit i thought he would be a better ball player.
I'm just saying, i thought he would have been a much better ball player by now. he wont put up Larry Walker numbers in the DC stadium, but i think he will come close. Good call by the Nats to lock him up.
As a sometime Reds fan, I sure wish he was still in Cinncinnati. For how long he's been around, he's still 26 on Opening Day (b-day in May), and I think he'll rake this year. Soriano showed last year that DC is not the hitters' mausoleum it was supposed to be. Plus they're moving into a new park at some point.
Anyway, he's always been a favorite of mine. I hope he finally fulfills his potential.