Watching the Seattle Mariners collapse last season was hard to watch but it wasn’t hard to see coming.  Too much was predicated on Richie Sexson bouncing back from a horrible 2007 season, which seemed to be the worst season of his career.   Unfortunately, it turned out that 2007 wasn’t the worst season of his career and that 2008 was destined to be.

For Mariners fans this was an eerie replay of the vanishing of the bat of Bret Boone, right down to the allegations of steroid withdrawal contributing to the sudden loss of power both players experienced.  While those rumors may or may not have a basis in reality, the truth is that it was sad to see the vanishing of Richie Sexson.

Where will Sexson be in 2009?  That’s a big question.  Will the 34 year old be able to sign a deal anywhere in baseball or is he done?  Considering that Sexson was largely a one dimensional player whose value lay in his home run power, it’s mysterious disappearance may have turned him into an asset only a bargain hunting team will gamble on, and then only to offer him a minor league deal.

For a guy that earned $28 million dollars over the past two seasons that will be a bitter pill to swallow, but if Sexson hopes to resurrect his career that might be his only option.  Scouts and Sexson himself attributed the power fall off to a loss of bat speed in his swing – a mechanical defect which neither Mariners or Yankees coaches were able to fix.   The result was a .221 average, .321 OBA with 8 home runs and 86 Ks in just 286 at bats – statistics that are dreadful by any standard.

It seems possible, even likely that Sexson could once again become a legitimate 35 home run threat if the fall was not directly related to performance enhancing drugs, and maybe even then.  He is certainly young enough to do so, and maybe his time with the Yankees helped him find a role model in someone like Jason Giambi who’s bounced back from both controversy and mediocrity.

Sexson could simply retire – he has made about $50 million over the eleven years of his career, but that doesn’t seem to fit with the character of a man who was driven to succeed and who fought his way to the Majors hitting 30+ home runs six of those seasons.  Perhaps that power bat will suddenly reappear somewhere at the Major league level.  If not, we’ll all shake our heads and wonder how a player so feared and respected for his power could suddenly vanish from stardom overnight.

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