Casey McGehee named NL Comeback Player of the Year; Chris Young wins AL Award

[reillymcshane]

Former Brewer Casey McGehee was named the NL Comeback Player of the Year.

 

After floundering in the majors in 2011-12, Casey went to Japan in 2013. He did well and received an offer from Marlins, landing the 3B job in spring training.

 

McGehee went on to hit .287 with a .355 OBP while playing 160 games. His OPS was a pedestrian .712 due to a lack of power (only 4 HR), but he drove in 76 runs, and his 177 hits ranked 4th in the NL.

 

Congratulations to Casey McGehee for his successful return to the majors. Casey was a fan favorite in Milwaukee and always seemed like a great guy.

 

The AL award went to 35-year old pitcher Chris Young of Seattle. Young pitched briefly in the minors in 2013 (only 9 games), but came back this past season to throw 165 innings (with a 3.65 ERA) for the Mariners, helping the team win 87 games and almost make the playoffs.

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11836898/miami-marlins-casey-mcgehee-seattle-mariners-chris-young-nl-al-comeback-players-year

[JohnBriggs12]

Casey and David Freese top the list of FA third basemen after this year. Unless Jimenez or Rogers excels picking up the pieces this year for Ramirez, Brewers could be in the market.

[bill hAll Star]

I would not touch McGehee with a 100 foot pole. Nice half of a season in his renewed approach, but he was sinking back to his old self in the second half.

[Slaket13]

I always have loved Casey McGehee and want to see him get a nice contract for that family of his.

 

However I would not want this contract to be from the Brewers. No way, that ship has sailed.

[umphrey]

No idea how he managed to walk 10% of the time with no power. Don't expect that to continue. Was glad to see him do well last year but don't expect him to last long.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I would not touch McGehee with a 100 foot pole. Nice half of a season in his renewed approach, but he was sinking back to his old self in the second half.

 

 

BABIP .369 pre ASB, BABIP .284 in the 2nd half. That pretty much tells the whole story right there.

[JohnBriggs12]

McGehee had the same number of RBI as Ramirez did post All Star game: 23, and more for the entire year. He won't ever cost anything near $10 million a year much less $14 million that the Brewers are paying for ARam.

[reillymcshane]

McGehee had the same number of RBI as Ramirez did post All Star game: 23, and more for the entire year. He won't ever cost anything near $10 million a year much less $14 million that the Brewers are paying for ARam.

I pray neither is on the roster in 2016.

 

At some point this organization needs to address the future of 3B, otherwise we'll end up with nothing but crappy, aging, overpaid options.

[bill hAll Star]

Of course Mcgehee will never be paid the same. However, if Casey McGehee is a free agent, all it takes is one team to do something foolish like look at RBIs and boost the asking price. McGehee has amassed 6 wins of WAR over 5 years. A-Ram has been worth 39 in 13 full seasons, including one season (2012) where Aramis almost had as high of a WAR (5.6) than Casey had over his entire career (6.4).

 

The Brewers took a bit of a risk on an aging Aramis, but there was expected payoff and they got a bit of it. I would expect negative value from McGehee as he ages, so I don't care if he's a bit underpaid.

[LouisEly]

Of the 26 3B with at least 350 PAs last year, McGehee ranked 17th in OPS. If you subscribe to the theory that OBP is more valuable than OPS, McGehee ranked higher than that. In fact, McGehee had the 2nd highest OBP of any 3B in the majors last year. It may have been inflated by an artificially high BABIP over part of a season, but 680 PAs is a pretty large sample. His SLG was down, but so was baseball as a whole. Playing in Japan has helped several major leaguers, so it's not unheard of for someone to play there and learn to make a few adjustments.

 

Point being, McGehee was at least an average 3B offensively last season. So he had some value; the question is what is it worth. Would you pay a league-average 3B $2M or Ramirez an additional $10M for a season? I'd say that McGehee would be a good risk at a cheap contract ($2M or less), as it would free up $8M to be invested elsewhere (bullpen, middle infield, etc.) to improve the team.

 

I wonder where Fiers ranked in the poll. He had a heckuva comeback season; a half-season, but his half-season was worth more in WAR than McGehee's full season.

[logan82]

Yes OBP is worth more than SLG but you can't totally discount SLG. McGehee ranked 15th out of 24 in wOBA, 19th out of 24 in wRC+, and 24th out of 24 in ISO. He hit like a middle infielder.