Red Sox shortstop Stephen Drew is not doing much for his free agent value with his shockingly bad performance this post season as beat writer Alex Speier points out.
Drew has stepped to the plate 43 times this postseason — one of 673 players in playoff history with 40 or more plate appearances in a single postseason.
After an 0-for-3 night in World Series Game 2 on Thursday, he’s gone 4-for-42 with one walk and 15 strikeouts. That translates to a dreadful .095 average and .116 OBP.
How bad are those marks?
Of the 673 players with 40 or more plate appearances in a single postseason, Drew ranks 669th in average… — ahead of only Alex Avila (.073, 2011), Robinson Cano (.075, 2012), Chone Figgins (.086, 2009) and Mike Epstein (.094, 1972).
Given his track record as a strong on-base presence, it is perhaps even more surprising to realize that Drew’s .116 OBP is the third worst ever, better than only Cano (.098 in 2012) and Avila.
Drew’s regular season performance would certainly be an upgrade over Ruben Tejada and Omar Quintanilla, but overall we’re not talking about that big of an offensive addition here…
In 442 at-bats with the Red Sox this season, Drew slashed at .253/.333/.443 with 13 home runs, 29 doubles, 67 RBI and 57 runs scored, but it’s hard to ignore his 124 strikeouts.
Worse yet is his .194 batting average against left-handed pitching which screams platoon player.
His struggles will certainly be hard to ignore and will weigh heavily into how hard the Mets will pursue Drew this offseason. Another thing that will be factored in is that Drew has spent significant time on the disabled list in each of his last three seasons, missing a total of 190 games in that span.
For a player many expect to command a 3-4 year deal ranging from $40-50 million dollars this Winter, Drew comes with a lot of risk. Too much risk if you ask me… Especially for the Mets who may just splurge for only one player that will average this much annually.
