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In what can only be considered bad timing in the final year of his contract, Washington Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond had a fairly dismal season in 2015. A bad April (.217/.287/.326, one home run and five RBI) turned into a bad first half (.211/.255/.334, seven home runs and 24 RBI), and Desmond wound up hitting a career-worst .233 with 19 home runs and 62 RBI.
Desmond also struggled defensively early this past season, with 20 of his 27 errors coming before the All-Star break. Perhaps not coincidentally, things also got better for Desmond offensively after the All-Star break, with a slash-line of .262/.331/.446, 12 home runs and 38 RBI. Those slash numbers are much more in line with his career track record (.264/.312/.424), so Desmond should still have a substantial market as he hits free agency this offseason.
In his latest Inside Baseball column Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.com expects the National League champion New York Mets to have serious interest in Desmond. Other teams Heyman mentioned that could be interested in Desmond are the San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins. All five teams have various degrees of need for a shortstop, and Desmond would be an upgrade for virtually any team that doesn’t have an immediate solution at the position.
The Danny Santana experiment wound up being a failure for the Twins in 2015, as he was eventually sent to Triple-A and Eduardo Escobar became the team’s regular shortstop. Escobar surely exceeded expectations, with a .286/.350/.524 slash-line, eight home runs and 27 RBI from Aug. 1 on, but it’s worth being skeptical about that level of production being sustainable heading into next season.
In a down year Desmond still produced rare power numbers for a shortstop, and a low BABIP (.279) before the All-Star break can be pointed to as a cause for his early season drop-off. The Twins may not be able to match the contract Desmond could get from another team this offseason, in terms of length and money, but they should be ready to throw their hat in the ring with a three or four-year offer.
Brad Berreman is a Senior Writer at Rant Sports.com. Follow him on Twitter.
