Raul Ibanez’s World Series will be off the field
Former Seattle Mariners OF/DH Raul Ibanez has had a tough 2014 season. He began the season with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and for them he hit a dismal .157 with 3 home runs and 21 RBI’s.
The Angels released him on June 21st, he was then picked up by the now American League Champion Kansas City Royals.
He was also reunited with bench coach Don Wakamatsu, who helped Raul in 1995 when he injured his wrist while playing for the Mariners Class A and AAA team.
Raul has had a great career when I think about it. He really didn’t break out into the athlete that he is until 2002 when he was in his first stint with the Royals.
He hit .294 that year with 24 home runs and he drove in 103. Ibanez returned to Seattle for his second stint with the team. That lasted for 5 years.
In that time he spent with the team he had his best season in the majors which came in 2006. In 06′ Ibanez hit 33 home runs, batted .283, and drove in a career best 123 runs.
Ibanez then left for 3 years in Philadelphia and one year in New York. In those 4 years Ibanez saw his first and only All Star appearance in 2009 with the Phillies, and in his only year in New York he hit a game tying home run in Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Baltimore Orioles that made him a beloved player in New York.
The next season saw Ibanez back with the Mariners and he did put up good home run, hit, and RBI numbers, but he had an up and down season that saw him go on a tear in one month and then in the second saw him decline drastically.
Ibanez is nearing the end of his career so what do the Royals think about Ibanez being apart of their World Series roster? Well, that’s the thing they don’t.
To me the Royals delivered Ibanez a huge slap in the face by not including him on their World Series roster. Ibanez is beloved in both Seattle and Kansas City, so why would one of the two teams he’s had the most success with do something like this?
Maybe its because they don’t trust him hitting wise or it could be his age. Either way, Ibanez will probably retire after this year. So why not let the 42 year old have his last shot at playing on a World Series Winner? (The Phillies lost in 2009)
Ibanez deserves it more than anyone.