Odd Thoughts

Farewell Todd Zeile

After sixteen years in the majors spent with eleven different teams, Todd Zeile has retired. Zeile never made an all-star team. He never led the league in anything. He was about average on defense. He did hit over 30 home runs once (31; 1997) and he cracked over 100 RBI’s once (103; 1993), but otherwise, Zeile was just an average player that was good enough to hang around for a long time. There’s no real way for me to be sure, but he must be among the players with the longest careers without an all-star appearance.

He played in 29 postseason games in his career, and again, he’s average in this category too: .292 batting average, 4 home runs, 14 RBI’s in 113 at bats. He was versatile in the field. In 2004 he made appearances at third, first, catcher, and pitcher. It was his third career pitching appearance, and unfortunately his performance in 2004 stopped his scoreless inning streak at 2.

His transaction log is a lot of fun though. In 1986 he was drafted by the Cardinals in the 2nd round. In 1995 they traded him to the Cubs for, ironically, Mike Morgan. He would be a free agent at the end of 1995 and he signed with the Phillies. In 1996 the Phillies sent him along with Pete Incaviglia to the Orioles for two PTBNL (Calvin Maduro, Garrett Stephenson). He was a free agent again in 1997 and signed with the Dodgers. In 1998, the Dodgers then traded him with Mike Piazza to the Marlins for Manual Barrios, Bobby Bonilla, Jim Eisenreich, Charles Johnson, and Gary Sheffield. Six weeks later the Marlins sent him to the Rangers for two minor leaguers that never made it. He was granted free agency at the end of the 1999 season and signed with the Mets, where he became a relative fixture. That is until 2002 when he was part of a three team trade that sent him to Colorado in a deal that, among many others, included Jeromy Burnitz. After the 2002 season, he signed with the Yankees, and was released in mid-August of 2003. He immediately signed with the Expos for the remainder of the year, and signed again with the Mets for the 2004 season.

I’m not even sure why I feel like Zeile deserves a tribute. I guess I feel I just have to say something about anybody that can hang around as long as he did. As a baseball card collector in 1990, Zeile was one of four highly desired rookies. The rest of the group (Eric Anthony, Greg Vaughn, Ben McDonald) didn’t make much off an impact. McDonald had a good season or two; Vaughn even managed to hit 50 home runs once, but Zeile just kept plugging away with 18-22 home runs, 75-85 RBI’s, and a .270 batting average. In fact, until 2003 when he became more of a pinch hitter, he always played about 150 games. He was reliable, and that’s harder and harder to find. Zeile finished with a .266 batting average, 2004 hits, 253 home runs, 1,110 RBI’s, and 986 runs scored.