One of my favorite things to do in the offseason is to take a look at some of the quirky parts of Braves history. One of these was the perceived notion that Jeff Blauser only played well in contract years. Why Blauser? Well, because he's one of the first Braves that I ever had his rookie card for. I paid a dollar for it at a local card shop, and still have it. In any case, let's look at the contract years.
Blauser was drafted by the Braves in 1984 in the first round, making his debut three years later in 1987. Something of note is that 1993 was Blauser's final arbitration year, and he provided his best campaign to date. He batted .305, driving in 73 and 15 homers, playing in what would end up being a career-high 161 games. During the postseason against the Phillies, he bat .280 with 2 homers and 4 RBIs. He had 19 errors at SS that season. This provided a 5.7 WAR, not that anyone was particularly using that particular stat during the mid-90s.
His first free agent contract year was in 1994, where he resigned with the Braves for three years, totaling $10.2m. This begs the question, though, of how he did that season. He did not come close to replicating the numbers from 1993. Playing in only 96 games, he bat .258 with only 6 homers and 45 RBIs, committing 13 errors in the strike-shortened season. Even though he regressed to a 2.0 WAR that season, the Braves awarded him with a 3 year, $10.2 million contract.
Fast forward to 1997, his second contract year. During this season, he batted .308 in 151 games, driving in 70 and taking 31 doubles. Add to this his career high 17 home runs, Blauser was showing a reason for a large contract, much like Jay Bell, a similar player and contemporary of Blauser, had gotten that same offseason. The contract would not come from the Braves, though. During the early days of the offseason, the Braves would sign Walt Weiss to a three year deal, effectively replacing Blauser with better defense and less money.
According to one article at the time, Scott Boras (Blauser's agent at the time, was contacted by John Schuerholz about a potential contract (which was rumored to be $3m per for 3 years). Boras claimed that Blauser was on a hunting trip and out of touch, and would return in three days. This was untrue; Blauser was at the NAPA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway at the time, and had a cell phone. In short, Boras attempted to call the Braves bluff, and it backfired on Blauser instead of Boras. According to the same article, Schuerholz states that "I'm sorrowful I didn't try something directly with Jeff."
Blauser would sign a one year contract with a option year with the Chicago Cubs. Needless to say to those of you who have been fans of Braves players that long, they were an unmitigated disaster. He ended up being an expensive part-time player for the Cubs, playing in 119 and 104 games in 1998 and 1999 respectively. According to his ESPN profile from the 1999 offseason, his 2000 outlook stated this:
It was no surprise when the Cubs declined to pick up Blauser's $7 million option for 2000. His signing by the Cubs can only be described as a colossal and expensive mistake. Teams may be wary, and it will be an upset if anyone entrusts him with a regular job at this point in his career.
At that point of his career, it was over. Blauser never played in the majors again, managing one season for the Mississippi Braves. I think that we can state that there isn't enough evidence to show that Blauser was just good in his contract years. Mostly, he was a decent player with a little pop in his bat. Most years, he was good for a 1.0 WAR, with some years being career years. One of those happened to be when he wanted his largest contract, and, in my opinion, had the screws put on him by his agent. It is interesting to think what may have happened in Atlanta had Blauser been contacted personally by Schuerholz, but that's neither here nor there.
Sources:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/blausje01.shtml - Blauser's Baseball Reference page
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/1997/11/26/oth_218117.shtml - Article on 1997 offseason
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/1997/11/18/oth_217691.shtml - Another article. Morris News thought we'd go for Brady Anderson. Talk about a one-year wonder, right?!
http://assets.espn.go.com/mlb/profiles/profile/4061.html - Blauser profile on ESPN
