The Texas Rangers have listened in recent years as fans and media alike have repeatedly questioned Elvis Andrus' worth to the team, especially last season after he admittedly came to spring training out of shape.
If you think it was bad before, it's about to get a whole lot worse.
Not only does Andrus' long-term extension kick in this season — he's set to make $15 million, more than double what he made last season — but he is statistically speaking the worst shortstop in Major League Baseball through two weeks.
The barometer? None other than the ever-trusted WAR category, which stands for wins above replacement and is universally the stat most used to judge a player's worth in the present day of analytics and advanced statistics.
As The Dallas Morning News' Evan Grant points out, it is a continued trend of decline for Andrus, who is still only 26 years old, since the 2012 season, when he was the fifth ranked shortstop in the game. The next season, he dropped to ninth and then plummeted to 17th last season. Now, he's 28th.
“I’m confident,” Andrus told Grant on Sunday. “I’ve prepared myself the right way. I’m not going to put pressure on myself. It’s not how you start; it’s you how finish.”
True statement, but Andrus has been in decline all the way around in recent years — at the plate, in the field and on the bases.
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All of that, and he's still set to to possibly make another $103 million from the Rangers. Great.
