For the Royals, the dream finally died. For us, the nightmare ends. Bob Dutton reports that the Royals have waived Guillen, bringing up a zillionth reliever to replace him.
The big or medium or small or please God just take him trade never came. Before, or after the non-waiver deadline. The Royals did their absolute damnedest to move Guillen, showcasing him like no other. Guillen appeared in 106 games with the Royals, including 105 starts. Guillen ended his career as a Royal with an 0-21 stretch, a nice middle finger out the door for everyone.
The Royals squeezed out a modicum of value (still probably a net negative given his salary, but whatevs) this season from a semi-revived Guillen. I hope it was worth everyone's time. Here's a quick summary of Guillen's Royal career:
- 2008: Ends up nearly exactly at replacement level. Is one of the most overpaid players in the game.
- 2009: Is hurt, is even worse. Absolutely one of the worst players+contracts in baseball.
- 2010: Posts best offensive & defensive numbers as a Royal, yet is still worth something like only half a win above replacement. The 7th best position player on a terrible team.
The Royals paid Guillen $36 million dollars over the last three seasons, and for that money they received 340 games of .256/.308/.420 hitting. That's a below average OPS, along with non-existent baserunning and mostly bad to terrible defense. Money horribly spent. An expensive non-solution that did nobody save Jose Guillen a peck of good. Guillen can now go into the Hall of Average Players For Awhile That Actually Kinda Sucked A Lot as a Royal, however, as his 340 games in KC is more than he played with his eight other teams. Take that, Pirates!
I hope Guillen has saved some money, because he's got two months of big paychecks left for the rest of his life.