After sitting out 2010 feeling unwanted and old, Jermaine Dye is looking into a return to baseball in 2011. According to Ken Rosenthal, he’s been contacted by the Phillies, Rays, and Rockies. He’s going commando in the negotiating world, electing to represent himself without an agent. The reason he didn’t play last year was because he refused to sign a minor league deal, money wasn’t the issue.
Dye is a career .274/.338/.488 hitter over his 14 seasons. In his last five years, all with the White Sox, he averaged 33 home runs per season, topping out at 44 in 2006. For a power hitter, he doesn’t walk or strike out that much, but you have to wonder how much he’s got left in the tank, turning 37 in January after a year off from baseball. In the field, he’s become a bit of a liability recently, posting negative dWAR’s in nine of the last ten seasons. Platooning, however, would hide some defensive inefficiency.
I would not hesitate signing him to a one-year deal worth a mil or so and using him as the 5th outfielder behind Ben Francisco. I don’t sweat losing John Mayberry to anyone. As a right-handed power bat, he’d fit in very nicely. Ideally, he’d platoon with Raul Ibanez because there is no way Domonic Brown should be platooning with anyone. We’ll monitor this situation as it develops.
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