Jason Kendall: Another Beaner In Oakland?

By Asher B. Chancey, BaseballEvolution.com

 

As much as we praise Billy Beane for his ability to make the Oakland Athletics a competitive team on the most meager of budgets, it appears that we tend to gloss over the mistakes which Beane makes. Importantly, it appears as though Beane is about to repeat a mistake he made three years ago.

 

It seems Beane has "all but completed" a deal which will send Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Jason Kendall to the Athletics for pitchers Arthur Rhodes and Mark Redman. If this deal reminds you of one involving Beane's protégé, Paul DePodesta, it should: late last season DePodesta sent Dodger fan favorite Paul LoDuca, along with Juan Encarnacion and pitcher Guillermo Mota, to the Marlins for Brad Penny, Hee Seop Choi, and a minor leaguer. While DePodesta was assailed for shipping LoDuca, it was the right move to make. LoDuca, while surely a gritty, hard-nosed player who hits for a high average and doesn't strike out much, also generally contributes little in terms of run production and makes plenty of dough. At the age of 32, LoDuca only promises to get older and more expensive, especially since he plays catcher, a position at which players tend to get old over night

 

This deal bears a strong resemblance to the LoDuca deal, except the SABRmetricians appear to be on the wrong end of this one.  While his average and on-base percentage are higher than LoDuca's, Kendall actually produced fewer runs and a lower slugging percentage than LoDuca last year. Kendall does have a better walk to strikeout ratio than LoDuca, and is two years younger than LoDuca, but the factor which weighs most heavily in Kendall's favor is his salary. Jason Kendall is set to make $10 million dollars next season after making 8.5 million and change the last two seasons. It is no wonder that cash strapped Pittsburgh is anxious to get rid of Kendall.

 

What is a wonder, however, is that Beane is so interested in Kendall. Surely he loves Kendall's .399 OBP over the last two years, and his 60/41 BB/K. But is he really willing to pay $10 million dollars for a 31 year old catcher who 22 home runs over the last four seasons? That Beane would pay $10 million dollars for any player is a legitimate wonder; that he would pay $10 million dollars for a player with so little offensive return boggles the mind.

 

This move is particularly surprising given that Beane has only now reached the end of the three year disaster which was Jermaine Dye tenure as an Oakland Athletic. This off-season, Beane declined to pick up the option on Dye immediately, breathing a sigh of relief as he finally got out from under the contract of a player for whom he paid over $30 million the last three years. Dye came over to the A's in a trade which sent three minor leaguers to the Colorado Rockies as part of three team deal in which Neifi Perez went to the Royals. Dye's OBP the year before the trade had been .390, and his triple crown numbers had been 33-118-.321. Dye failed to play more than 137 games in any of his three seasons, and his highest OBP over that time was .333. More tragically, Dye walked 126 times while striking out 278 times in three years. There is a lesson to be learned.

 

In many ways, the Dye debacle was a fluke; Jermaine suffered from injuries during his stay in Oakland which Beane could not have foreseen. There is no reason, of course, to believe that Jason Kendall will not be able to put up the same numbers he has put up for the last several seasons. The question, though, is whether Kendall will be worth the money he is paid even if he does put up the same numbers he has the last few years. The answer has to be a resounding no. In this depressed free agent market (which, by the way, someone should tell Scott Boras we are experiencing), $30 million dollars over three years can buy a lot of things. And its not like Beane is getting rid of salary in return: Rhodes and Redman are on track to make about $3.8 million combined next season.

 

The legend of Billy Beane has been built around an ability for spotting true talent and not paying much for it, and for getting the most out of trading away players who are soon to command more than the Athletics can afford as free agents. The Jermaine Dye lesson was a costly one, and now, only moments after finally getting out from under Dye's contract, Billy Beane is about to defy his own legend and his own mistakes, and acquire another merely decent $30 million dollar player. Maybe Billy should give his old buddy DePodesta a call, and DePodesta can offer some advice on when to acquire aging, over priced catchers, and when to get rid of them.