At age 37, Houston Astros first baseman José Abreu has an MLB resume that would make many players envious.
Abreu is a three-time All-Star. Former AL Rookie of the Year. Three-time Silver Slugger Award winner. American League Hank Aaron Award winner. And of course, American League MVP in 2020.
But Abreu, after signing a three-year deal with the Astros worth just under $60 million suddenly can’t hit. How bad is it? In 22 games this season (71 ABs) he has just 7 hits. That equates to a BA of 0.99 and a slugging percentage of just .113.
As such, the former MVP is being assigned to A-ball in an attempt to get his stroke back.
But Abreu isn’t the first big-time MLB player to see a significant downfall. And he won’t be the last.
Here are 5 MLB players who were significant stars in the league only to see a spectacular downfall in their performance.
Chris Davis
Chris Davis was nicknamed “Crush Davis.” And for good reason.
After being inserted in the lineup full-time for the Baltimore Orioles in 2012, Davis contributed 33 home runs while batting .270, helping the team reach the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.
2013 was even better. He hammered a Major League-leading 53 home runs and set a new Orioles single-season franchise record in doing so. Davis would be named an All-Star and finished third in MVP voting that year.
He would lead the league in HRs again in 2015 leading to a seven-year, $161 million contract with the Orioles in January of 2016.
Shortly thereafter, things went south. Injuries led to struggles in 2017 before a horrific 2018 season which saw him hit .168 – the lowest in the modern era for qualified MLB hitters.
2019 wasn’t much better as Davis set another MLB record by going 0-54, the most consecutive at-bats by a position player without a hit.
Davis retired in 2021.
Chuck Knoblauch
In a very famous case of “the yips”, former Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees second basemen Chuck Knoblauch makes our list.
Knoblauch was a solid and respectable hitter throughout his career. He was a four-time All-Star and two-time recipient of the Silver Slugger Award.
He was also a four-time World Series champion, once with the Twins and three times as a Yankee.
But Knoblauch suddenly developed an inability to throw a baseball to first base, a skill seemingly paramount for someone who plays at second.
Once a Gold Glove winner and having earned the moniker “Fundamentally Sound” from ESPN, Knoblauch was incapable of hitting the ocean with a baseball at times.
Knoblauch made 15 errors in less than half a season in 2000, 10 of them via errant throws, including one that hit Keith Olbermann’s mother in the head. (No, we’re not making that up).
At one point he famously left Yankee stadium in street clothes after pulling himself from the game after making three throwing errors in six innings.
Knoblauch would be used almost exclusively as a designated hitter for the remainder of his career.
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Steve Blass
Alright, so you have to go back a little bit for this one.
Steve Blass is a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame. He was an All-Star in 1972 after helping to deliver the city a World Series championship a year earlier.
Blass won 18 games in 1968 while posting a stellar 2.12 ERA, the lowest of his career.
He was the winning pitcher in game 7 of the 1971 World Series. He pitched two complete games for the Pirates during the series (Game 3 – Giving up 1 run on 3 hits, and Game 7 – Giving up 1 run on 4 hits).
The 1972 season saw Blass put up a record of 19-8 with a 2.49 ERA. The very next season though he developed his own version of “the yips”.
In fact, it had its own name – “Steve Blass Disease.”
Blass posted a 9.85 ERA in 1973 with 84 walks in just 88.2 innings. He spent most of 1974 in the minors before retiring the following year.
Dallas Keuchel
From back in the day to somebody much more recent. Dallas Keuchel was an All-Star pitcher in 2015 and 2017. He helped lead the Houston Astros to the World Series championship in 2017*.
He led the American League in wins in 2015 (20) and posted a dazzling 2.48 ERA. In 10 fewer starts during the championship season* he had a 14-5 record with a 2.90 ERA.
Keuchal was as dominant a pitcher as there was in the modern MLB era. But that dominance was brief.
Since leaving Houston in 2018, Keuchel has been a sub-.500 pitcher. And after a brief glimmer in 2000 as a pitcher with the Chicago White Sox he has seen very limited action and posted ERAs of 5.28, 7.88, and 5.97 in seasons in which he has appeared in at least 8 games.
Keuchel recently signed a minor league contract with the Seattle Mariners.
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Rick Ankiel
Rick Ankiel is one of the most famous cases of “the yips” in baseball. But he’s also an inspirational story of eventually working through his struggles and finding a different way to contribute to his team.
That’s why we saved him for last.
Ankiel was a pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1999 until 2001. In his first full season as a pitcher, he racked up a respectable 11-7 record with a solid ERA of 3.50 and 194 strikeouts.
His rate of 9.98 strikeouts per nine innings that year ranked only behind Randy Johnson in the National League. But then the wheels fell off.
Suddenly Ankiel found himself unable to locate the strike zone. In 2001 he walked 25 batters and tossed five wild pitches in just 24 innings.
Ankiel was sent down to Triple-A where it only got worse. In just 4.1 innings, he walked 17 batters and threw 12 wild pitches, posting a 20.77 ERA.
It was a tremendous fall. But Ankiel was resilient, working hard at becoming a better hitter in the minors in 2005. After two-and-a-half years he was finally called back up to the Cardinals as an outfielder.
He became the first player after Babe Ruth to win at least 10 games as a pitcher and also hit at least 70 home runs for his career.
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