royalsandcelebs

Batting third, and limping to the batter’s box,… Left-fielder Juan Gonzalez.

Yes, it’s come to this.  Juan Gonzalez.  This one’s pretty easy.  I’m tempted not to write anything at all.  In 2004, the Royals were coming off the shock of a winning season, and owner David Glass pryed open his checkbook to sign… Juan Gonzalez.

At the time, a lot of people said this was a good signing.  Those people are now in the Witness Protection Program.  And, to be honest, financially, this wasn’t the most damaging signing in the world.  The terms: 1 year, 4 million dollars for a two-time former MVP.  That’s cheaper than the Red Sox paid for Jose Offerman.  Although Gonzalez’s best years were certainly behind him, it wasn’t as if he was coming off an Andruw Jones-esque down year.  In only 82 games and 327 at-bats, the guy hit 24 home runs.  Sure, he missed half the year, but hey, it’s only 4 million dollars.  What could possibly go wrong?

A lot, it seems like.  His injury prone legacy followed him to Kansas City, where he only had 127 at-bats, which is exactly 200 fewer than the previous year,… where he missed half of the season.  So, that means, in Kansas City, he missed two-thirds of half the year, which adds up to… to… one-sixth of a season.  When you have to use your fraction adding skills from fourth grade math to figure out how long a guy played, he either didn’t play that much or you’re a nerd of Urkelbot-constructing proportions (you’re also a nerd if you get that reference).

Gonzalez has never been known to play through pain all that readily, but his time with the Royals felt different.  He didn’t just seem to condition badly–he also didn’t seem to care.  His 5 home runs and 19 RBI showed that. 

The organization also stressed this was a good signing because he’d have an influence on Carlos Beltran, our young, growing superstar who was on the verge of free agency.  Exactly what influence do you want from an aging, surly, journeyman outfielder?  For a while, the team seemed to think that just by placing older Latin American ballplayers near young Latin America ballplayers would work out just fine, merely because they come from the same country.  They didn’t account for personalities and attitudes.  The moment the club signed Gonzalez, they lost any slimmer of hope of locking up Beltran long-term.

2004 set this organization back at least until Dayton Moore arrived two and a half years later, and Juan Gonzalez is a huge part of that.  Gonzalez may have only been a cranky old ballplayer, but he was a sign that when everything is going right, the team didn’t know how to keep it going.  Signings like Jose Gonzalez were examples of this team derailing a train that may have very well been on schedule.

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