Deciding To Retire: It Helps To Not Be Good Anymore

You're 37, you've had a fine Major League career, one of the 250 best of all-time, according to Baseball-Reference.com. You've brought home to your family, your agent and your somewhat over-bearing Uncle $91 million. 

As an above-average hitter playing middle infield, and then third base, you made All-Star games and got down-ballot MVP votes. As recently as three years ago you batted .338, with time at DH, third, first and second, and led your team to within an out of a World Championship.

But that was in a ballpark that gets Valentine's Day cards from batters, on a team pulsing with hitters. As a second baseman and shortstop with limited range, hitting .300 was real valuable, but now that you're a first baseman and DH whose range could be bronzed, you're barely a replacement level player. 

Last year, you got shipped off to the geriatric ward in Philadelphia before getting rescued toward season's end by the Dodgers. You made $16 million, but no one is offering you more than a million or two this year to pinch hit, school the youngsters and bid adieu one road trip at a time.

It might have been tempting for Michael Young to discount his services to a contender in hopes of securing a ring and taking a run at 3,000 hits. But the odds of the former are long and the latter are astronomical considering he's 675 base knocks away. Moreover, Young is perched at .300 in the batting line and would almost certainly compromise his status.

So Michael Young has traded himself to his family with a batting title; a Gold Glove, however unearned; two 100+ RBI seasons; four seasons of 100+ runs and four seasons of 20+ homers. He led the league in hits twice, made seven All-Star appearances and conducted himself with class every day for 14 years. 

That's not a bad resume. It's not a bad way to go out.

Phillies Get Young, Old

In the history of humankind, every empire has dissolved for the same reason: it failed to recognize that its shrinking economy could no longer sustain its foreign adventures.

It appears that Ruben Amaro, Jr. is no student of history.  

The Phillies' general manager, he of the big splash variety, continues to send his warships to sea while apparently oblivious to the dilapidated state of the franchise back home. An aging squad with depreciating assets, they are no longer the division-winning Phillies of '07-'11. HMS Werth, Victorino, Pence, Lidge and Ibanez are gone and HMS Rollins, Utley, Polanco and Howard are taking on water fast. But for three of baseball's best starting pitchers and incompetent competition in Miami, this is a last place team.

And now, Amaro has spent $6 million and a pair of farmhands -- one of whom is considered a real prospect -- to fill third base with a rusting Michael Young. In a sense, Young is a real Phillie: a former star who has burned up most of his gas. At 36 last season he appropriately saw most of his time at DH and 1B and for the first time battled injuries and ineffectiveness at the plate. His last 100 games or so at third base have not been pretty even when he could hit.

While Texas dances a little jig that they unloaded Young and got something in return, even if they have to eat $10 million, the Phils can expect pretty much replacement level results at the hot corner. For that, they could have signed Eric Chavez for a nice fruit salad and platooned him with Kevin Frandsen, who hit .338 in 195 at bats last season and is arbitration eligible for the first time.

Michael Young is a talented hitter who might hit .300 again and provide a win or two in Philadelphia, though at his age that's no longer the way to bet. But to what purpose? The Phils need to regroup, not reload with empty uniforms. Amaro seemed to understand that when he flipped Victorino and Pence last season for prospects.

This is a pretty minor deal that likely won't alter Philadelphia's prospects much in '13. But if it's representative of Amaro's mindset going into the season, God help the poor beleaguered fans of that city. They've already had to endure the Eagles, 76ers and Flyers. At least the Freedoms got a song.