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February 19, 2013

Out of Left Field

The 10,786 Miles Not Technically Traveled By Sandy Rosario

by Matthew Kory

This will shock you: a while back I made an entirely unoriginal joke. Edwin Jackson had signed a four-year contract with the Cubs and I said I was disappointed because that made him much less likely to change teams again. Not funny, I know, but fortunately it’s the topic of the joke I’m more concerned with now. At the age of 29, Jackson will play for his eighth team this season. That, as realtors say, is a lot. So, if you’re one of those people who would love to see Jackson play for every major-league team just for the novelty of it, then a four-year restriction on his changing teams isn’t what you want to see.

Now that Jackson appears to be staying put for a while, maybe he’ll pass the scepter to Sandy Rosario. And maybe Rosario will refuse it because he has done almost as much this offseason as Jackson has in his career. When I say “done as much” I’m not referring to actual pitching. Rosario has thrown 7 2/3 innings over parts of three seasons for the Marlins while putting up a 15.26 ERA, so we’re not talking on-field exploits here. No, it’s his whiplash-inducing offseason. You see, in the span of two months, the end of October through December, Rosario changed organizations five times. He was traded once and selected off waivers four separate times. In a two-week span he was:

1. Cut by the Marlins and selected by the Red Sox

2. Cut by the Red Sox and traded to the A’s

3. Cut by the A’s and selected by the Red Sox

By any standard that’s a lot. I’ve never been traded but I imagine it’s a stressful thing for a player to go through. The closest I can come is moving to a new city for a new job. I’ve done that and it was stressful, but it wasn’t against my own will. In fact, it was very much my decision. None of these changes was Rosario’s choice, which makes it more difficult, I’d imagine.