Miguel Tejada has never been a great defensive shortstop, but he has always been a good hitter. Perhaps he was always destined to play third base, and I suspect he'll do so next year, whether he plays for the Astros or not.
The question is, should be play third base for us. Part of the answer to that question will depend upon how much money he wants to come back. I can't answer that question, but I can compare Tejada to other players on the market.
Regardless of whether Tejada comes back, we'll have Jeff Keppinger under contract next season. He's pretty much a lefty-hitting specialist, batting to the melodious tune of .314/.360/.441 against LHP this season (pretty similar to Tejada's .326/.349/.482 line, as a matter of fact). While his range isn't great, he's passable at third base defensively.
So let's keep in mind that if we can find a decent right-handed specialist to pair with him--in other words, somebody whose last name isn't Blum--a Keppinger/somebody else combination might be perfectly viable.
Russell Branyan might be that guy. Against righties, he hit for a .267/.363/.542 line this season, with 21 homers and 50 RBI in half a season's worth of plate appearances. Maybe not star numbers, but not far off. He's had some experience at third base and might be able to play the position adequately.
Adam Kennedy is another option. He batted .306/.370/.438 against right-handed pitchers this season, playing third base much of the time.
Either of these guys would probably be better than Blum and would be a good fit with Keppinger.
So let's take a look at this season's stat comparisons:
Tejada: .314/.341/.455
Branyan (RHP)/Keppinger (LHP): .280/.361/.514
Kennedy (RHP)/Keppinger (LHP): .308/.364/.438
To summarize a little bit and state the obvious, letting Tejada go and picking up Branyan to pair with Keppinger would result in a loss in batting average, but significant gains in the more-important on-base percentage and slugging percentage. The comparison between Tejada and Kennedy/Keppinger (the killer K's? Too soon?) is closer--a slight sacrifice in slugging for a noticeable improvement in getting on base.
Defensively, it would be impossible to compare without knowing how Tejada will do at third base, so I'm not sure how much that can factor into the decision.
Either of these options would be cheaper than Tejada, though perhaps a little riskier, not knowing if they will maintain production like he has. Adding Branyan might even be an upgrade over Tejada at the position.
Would they be cheap enough to take the risk? Probably, yes. Tejada is, by all accounts, a great clubhouse leader and a good guy, but he's coming off a $13MM year with production that nearly justified his cost (he was worth $11.9MM according to FanGraphs). It's highly unlikely that he will demand anything less than around $7MM, and it would be hard to blame him. As platoon guys, Branyan or Kennedy would be much cheaper, especially being less recognizable names.
The money we saved on a third baseman could go toward starting pitching. But that's a discussion for another post.
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