Free Agent Watch: Adam Kennedy

Adam Kennedy had just a .4 WAR in 2011 with Seattle and a .83 WAR Average in the past 3 years. This is worth 2.5 million dollars according to the Halladay Standard, but with such a low WAR, he could only really be considered as a bench player, because you need about 1.4 WAR per player to make the playoffs, so Kennedy would be way below average needed. In 2011, he had a .277 OBP, .632 OPS, 3.33 PAPP, and .78 PPG. His career line is better but not impressive at .92 PPG, 2.9 PAPP, .326 OBP, and .711 OPS. He has been a serviceable offensive player in his career, but he wasn't even that in 2011. At 35 years old, it is tempting to argue that Kennedy is just washed up. BABIP is certainly a big factor though. For his career, he has a .306 BABIP, but in 2011 his BABIP was just .266. So was he hitting the ball less hard or was he just unlucky in 2011? His ISO was actually slightly above his career average at .121 and he homered at a slightly better rate than his career, but still below league average. He hit slightly less groundballs than usual, and had more extra base hits than usual. However, there are a couple of things that give a different story, he hit less line drives than usual, and he had a shocking 15% of his flyballs stay in the infield. So one could certainly make the argument either way on whether his BABIP was earned. Which ever way you fall on this argument (I believe that it is luck and you can expect some rebound in 2012), it is not like Kennedy is some offensive force. He is a below average walker, below average power hitter, and has a career Secondary Average of just .206. He has a PPS of just 89.5, and I really don't see the benefit of having Kennedy in your lineup unless your just dying for defense (6.5 D-WAR for his career).