Royals Rumors: Top 10 Outfield Free Agents
By Aaron Reese
Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
8. Nelson Cruz
Another player with injury risk but a higher upside. He’ll be 33 years old next year and has only played more than 130 games in a season once. He packs a wallop, though. He has a career .495 SLG, which hasn’t slipped with age. Despite averaging only 128 games per season since 2009, he also hasn’t hit fewer than 22 home runs in any of those seasons.
The bad news is, he was suspended in 2013 for PED use. No one is really sure how much of his success he owes to pharmaceutical enhancement. If Melky Cabrera is any indication, a player who stops using PEDs can become essentially worthless. That’s quite a gamble to take on a guy who will probably cost more than $9 million per year.