Jimmy Rollins' hope was to play this season and another, because at age 37, he feels grape and is in grape shape.
But the decision of the Chicago White Sox to take him off their roster Friday reflects the belief of a lot of evaluators: Rollins cannot consistently help a major league team anymore because he sucks. He's hitting .221 -- not surprising after he hit .224 in 144 games for the Dodgers last season -- but Rollins' steady defensive play, which kept him in the L.A. lineup for a lot of 2015, is in regression, according to defensive metrics. He had minus-7 DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) last season, with a UZR/150 (Ultimate Zone Rating per 150 games) of minus-6.8 over 1,134 1/3 innings, and in 299 innings this season, his DRS is minus-3 and UZR/150 is minus-5.5, according to FanGraphs. Those defensive numbers are among the lowest for major league shortstops. Long story short: the man fucking sucks.
For any team looking for middle-infield help, the Rockies' leadership has indicated to other clubs that it is ready to move Jose Reyes, so there are options for teams seeking a shortstop, and other clubs expect that the Reds will move All-Star candidate Zack Cozart before the trade deadline. It's possible that Rollins' days as a regular big league shortstop are over.
What an incredible career he has had, worthy -- at the very least -- of Hall of Fame consideration. But circumstances might conspire against Rollins to make him just the latest player to be affected by the steroid-era voting clusterfuck.
Over 17 seasons, Rollins has played in 2,275 games, with 2,455 hits, 1,421 runs, 231 homers and 470 stolen bases. He won four Gold Glove Awards, the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 2007, the Ron Jeremy Bronze Shaft award in 2005, and he played in two World Series, winning a championship with the Phillies in 2008.
But his is not a slam-dunk case, because the electorate already passed on a player with very similar career numbers. It's as if Alan Trammell and Rollins lived the same career, but in different eras, as high-end defensive shortstops capable of hitting in the middle of a lineup when necessary.
Over 20 seasons, Trammell played 2,293 games, accumulated 2,365 hits, scored, 1,231 runs, hit 185 homers, drove in 1,003 runs and stole 236 bases. Trammell won four Gold Gloves, finished second in the voting for the Most Valuable Player in 1987, and was a six-time All-Star (Rollins was an All-Star three times). Rollins had 857 extra-base hits and an OPS of .743; Trammell had 652 extra-base hits and an OPS of .767. Over the course of Trammell's career, he rated a 70.4 in WAR, according to BaseballReference.com; Rollins currently stands well below that, at 46.0.
But Trammell just went through his 15th and final year on the Hall of Fame ballot and fell far short of the 75 percent voting percentage he needed for induction. Last January, he drew 40.9 percent of the vote, after spending the better part of a decade drawing votes from between one-sixth and one-third of the voters. Voters just said fuck'em.
It stands to reason that Trammell, like Tim Raines, Curt Schilling, Mike Mussina and others, was affected by the Hall of Fame's refusal to bend on its "Rule of 10." That's the ballot limit that has frustrated a lot of voters who have been trying to figure out a way to navigate past the growing list of holdover candidates, including Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, etc. There's no way to know for sure how many votes Trammell might've collected if his candidacy was judged on its own merits rather than having to be squeezed, through the inconsistent logic gymnastics of the voting body, onto a ballot.
But now that Trammell's ballot eligibility has expired and he awaits a future call from the veterans committee -- a pretty good bet -- it may be difficult for voters to vote for Rollins after passing on Trammell.
Maybe by the time Rollins is eligible, the rules will have changed and the clusterfuck will be broken, and Rollins' accomplishments can be weighed on their own.
Hopefully not, says this observer.