It’s been a weird week on the transactions front, as the Yankees and Braves both added pitchers who don’t improve their team.
The pickings are admittedly slim at this point, but as leverage continues to go down, some of the last remaining free agents are finding homes. The Brewers provided the latest signing by inking free agent first baseman Mark Kotsay.
As down as I was on the Yankees’ and Braves’ acquisitions of Freddy Garcia and Rodrigo Lopez, I dislike this one even more. Why? Because Milwaukee made the mistake of giving Kotsay a major league contract. And that’s just a bad decision.
Mark Kotsay has been worth -1.0 WAR across the past two seasons while playing his home games in the bandbox that is US Cellular Field. He hasn’t posted a wOBA of even .320 since 2005, and it’s not like .320 is even any sort of standard for a first baseman.
Kotsay is solid defensively at first, and he can even make an emergency corner outfield appearance here and there, but he doesn’t have anywhere near the sort of defensive utility or prowess to prop up his weak bat–perhaps if he could catch or play shortstop, he would have a home.
What exactly does Kotsay do well? He doesn’t have any plus offensive skills and doesn’t play a difficult defensive position. He is a career .315 pinch-hitter, but is just 4-for-28 in that role over the past two years, so even that skill isn’t still around.
Perhaps he’s a good clubhouse influence and a nice guy. That’s admirable and great, but you don’t guarantee a player a spot on your big league roster solely for that. Give him an NRI, and if he shows up in shape and indicates he has something–anything–to contribute, then fine, put him on the roster for the minimum. But guaranteeing a spot on the roster to a player who hasn’t deserved one for two years and perhaps more isn’t sound, particularly for a team that needs to squeeze out every possible win.
Particularly perplexing is that there’s no reason to bring in a first baseman to a team that happens to have an excellent one already. It’s not like the Brewers needed help at the position and just wanted to see what might stick. And if they wanted a caddy for Prince Fielder, they should’ve at least gotten one that hits from the other side of the plate, not to mention one that is some sort of threat at the plate. In-house outfielder Brendan Katin, who bashed 26 homers in Triple-A last year in just 336 AB, would fit that bill way more than Kotsay, and appropriately, Katin does not have a place on the 40-man, let alone 25-man, roster.
It’s astounding that a player with this poor of a recent track record continues to catch the eye of baseball executives, particularly those as smart as Milwaukee’s. This is the sort of peripheral decision that could cost a team one or two wins over the course of the season, a hit Milwaukee really isn’t in a position to take as they make an all-out run for the NL Central title.