I brought up Lance Berkman last week and was vehemently denied by just about everyone to be a platoon DH with Young. But what about bringing Trafner back to where it all began? He's an obvious part-time player due to injuries who could create a pretty lethal DH with Young, being the beast vs. RH pitchers and Young doing his thing vs. LH pitchers. Should be pretty cheap too in the range of $3-5 mil. We usually spend that on some reclamation project every year anyways. Might as well use it on a guy who could fill a hole.

Thoughts?

With Wash at the helm, I'd prefer a guy who provides a little more versatility. That, and I'd be pretty deflated if Hafner is the guy we bring in to proved an offensive boost.

Btw this scenario is assuming Young is still on the team. This is just a cheap way of maximizing Young's talent/DH number for next year since he's more than likely gonna be on the roster come opening day.

P1stefen, you lost me at "with Young." Ugh.

Sorry, I know I'm a few days late to this post but I really like the idea of bringing in Hafner to be part of a platoon at DH. Moreover, the fact that he is injured so often would mean that it wouldn't necessarily limit the versatility some are looking for with the DH position and if he's healthy for a substantial part of the year it would likely mean he's at least part of the way back to being a potential MOTOB, especially if he's used only against RHP. Plus, with that kind of monetary commitment (assuming we could get him for 3-5 mil) if it wasn't working out it's not a huge loss. At the end of the day I'd rather spend that money on Hafner than a 40-50 inning/season reliever who would probably cost about the same.

I'd rather spend it on a reliever if he's good. This is the era of pitching, and I think right now good pitching usually trumps good hitting. For example, if Koji could be had for that same $3-5m, I'd rather have him.

Sorry, but I don't want a guy on the roster who can't play any position and can only DH. That really limits our roster flexibility, especially since Hafner is absolutely useless against LH'ers. Don't want to waste a roster spot on a situational hitter. I'd rather have a rotation going at DH. We have a number of older players like Beltre, Cruz, Young, etc. and they need the occasional rest so we need an open DH spot that isn't occupied full-time by just one or two guys.

Plus Hafner is 35 and only hit .228 last year. He's basically a journeyman-grade player at this point, the kind of bottom-of-the-barrel guy who only small-market teams like KC and PIT look at because he comes cheap since he's near the end of his career. Plate discipline-wise last year, he swung at 26.5% of pitches out of the zone - his 2nd-highest rate since his horrible 2008 season when he hit .197, and bat-speed-wise his success rate on fastballs was also his worst since 2008. He's running on empty at this point.

This is a really good idea. But rather than Hafner, what if we bring back Pete Incaviglia to platoon with Young. That creates a vicious 1-2 punch out of the DH spot, and Incaviglia can fill in for the OF when the guys out there need a break....and then also think about the veteran leadership we'll have? Young, as we all know, produces about 10 WAR with his clubhousemanship, and Incaviglia has been a manager in the minors.

@Kristen
He was injured last season and even though his avg. was bad (due to injury), his OBP was still .361 vs. RHP....so he obviously has some plate discipline. He has nearly a .400 OBP vs. RHP for his career. For the money, I wouldn't be against bringing him here. I wouldn't mind our guys getting full days off either, since they were run into the ground last season.
We are obviously looking for a LH bat through FA and there really aren't very many decent ones out there that won't require a boat load of money. I'm just trying to keep cost down. They could probably just cut Young (which I don't see happening) if Hafner was brought on, so all of our RH bats could rotate at DH vs. LHP's.

P1, if you're trying to keep costs down why would you cut Young and replace him with another $3M black hole platoon player?

We have enough injury prone and aging guys that we could fill the DH spot every night without bringing anyone in and getting guys like Olt and Profar some time in the field. We don't need to sign another injury prone and aging guy to fill that role.

@Henchman
If you think in a vacuum, I would assume any FA signing wouldn't be keeping costs down.........but fortunately I referred to my logic of keeping costs down and the stats to back up Hafner. I even said Young will more than likely be on the roster anyways. Don't we try to sign some veteran bat every year. Even Thome has been talked about the last couple years. I'm just presenting cheap alternatives to what we are obviously looking for, a decent powered LH bat.