The Seattle Mariners just surrendered two prospects to the Kansas City Royals in order to acquire veteran first baseman Carlos Santana.
Once capable of drawing 100 walks and hitting more than 30 home runs per year, it’s now clear that Santana is declining as a hitter.
That shouldn’t surprise anybody: he is 36 years old and time passes for everybody.
But he may not be the slugger that the Mariners offense needs.
“Carlos Santana hasn’t exactly been on fire over his last 162 games: .206 batting average; .309 on-base percentage; .309 (NOT A TYPO) slugging percentage; 21 doubles, 0 triples, 13 homers; 87 walks, 99 strikeouts; 53 R / 58 RBI. His ability to draw walks is his saving grace,” High Heat Stats tweeted.
Carlos Santana hasn’t exactly been on fire over his last 162 games:
.206 batting average
.309 on-base percentage
.309 (NOT A TYPO) slugging percentage21 doubles, 0 triples, 13 homers
87 walks, 99 strikeouts53 R / 58 RBI
His ability to draw walks is his saving grace.
— High Heat Stats (@HighHeatStats) June 27, 2022
Yikes.
More Production Will Be Needed To Replace Ty France
If the Mariners were looking for a temporary fill-in for injured star Ty France, even a minor leaguer carried more upside than Santana.
For the Royals, it was a deal worth doing: at 26-45, they won’t contend in 2022 and probably won’t miss Santana.
One has to wonder why the Mariners felt the need to make that deal.
A .309 slugging percentage is often associated with a light-hitting backup infielder, not a starting first baseman.
His walk rate is obviously good, but since his average is so bad, Santana’s .309 OBP isn’t even an asset anymore.
Only time will tell if the M’s made the right move, but the numbers are definitely not pretty, especially his recent performance.
For the season, Santana has a .216/.349/.341 line with four homers and 21 RBI.
He hasn’t slugged over .400 since 2019, and needed 659 plate appearances to slug 19 homers last year.
It seems like a desperate move by a desperate franchise that is seeing its season slip away.
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