MLB: Is Renting Veterans Worth it?

Each of the last several years, MLB teams in contention use the trade deadline to acquire the best players to win it all. Is that the right way to win?

Massive contracts are thrown around like they are toys in MLB today. An average player can make money playing baseball that no other average worker can get. It is because of teams having to pay massive contracts that are more and more in the last several years. Instead, teams have opted to ‘rent’ quality players at the trade deadline.

Renting a player means a team in contention for the playoffs trades for a player with an expiring contract. This player tends to be on the older side of the spectrum, and has already played through their prime years. This year, the two most notable players who are currently being rented are Carlos Beltran and Rich Hill.

Beltran was traded on this year’s trade deadline to the Texas Rangers from the New York Yankees and has been horrible since being traded. The 39-year old has hit two home runs and hit for a .230 average near the top of a World Series contending lineup.

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Hill, on the other hand, came out of the blue. Having pitched in the minor and independent leagues most of his career, the 36-year-old is a newcomer to stardom. He was traded from the Oakland Athletics to the Los Angeles Dodgers on August 1st and, after overcoming blisters, Hill dominated the San Francisco Giants on August 24. He pitched six masterful innings and the Dodgers won 1-0.

Over the last several years, no team that have won it all has gone the route of renting players at the deadline. Look at four of the last five World Series champions, the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants. Both teams made their best players who they are now in-house. Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina and Matt Carpenter became the players they are inside Cardinal walls. Buster Posey, Brandon Belt and Tim Lincecum were fully developed by the Giants. These were the cornerstones of World Series winning teams. There is something to the madness of raising your own players.

What is that special factor that allows teams with homegrown players to be so successful? As much as certain teams like to think, money cannot buy chemistry. Teams like the Cardinals and Giants have incredible chemistry.

Chemistry is so important for teams to win because gelling properly simply allows you to play better. When a team trades for a veteran, who may have a large ego and may think they are above some of the younger players who are playing well, that creates major issues.

Think about the Chicago Cubs; players like Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist have such incredibly chemistry together that it makes their team go round. The better chemistry a team has, the better they will play. When a team rents a veteran because they feel it will help their chances to win a World Series, not only does that mess up the chemistry from the new player’s perspective, it also hurts the chemistry the other players have because now they have to accommodate for someone else’s ego.

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Trading for a veteran is usually a bad idea because of one main feature that every championship team must have; cohesion and chemistry. Renting probably started because teams feel having the best players mean you have the best chance of winning a championship. That is not the case.