Infielder/outfielder Hunter Dozier has been released by the Angels, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had signed a minor league deal with them in January but will now return to the open market in search of his next opportunity.
It’s understandable why the Halos took a shot on Dozier. He’s still being paid by the Royals as part of the extension he signed with that club many years ago, so it was essentially a free look at a guy who was once a capable big league hitter.
Unfortunately, they didn’t see much to like in that free look. Dozier took 214 plate appearances for the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees while lining up at all four corner spots but struck out in 29.9 percent of them. He did hit seven home runs but only walked at a 5.6 percent clip.
His .222/.268/.394 batting line is unimpressive in a vacuum and even more so in the hitter-friendly context of the Pacific Coast League, as it translates to a 56 wRC+.
That’s a significant drop from where he was a few years ago. With the Royals in 2019, Dozier hit 26 home runs and walked at a 9.4 percent rate. That is now known as the “juiced ball” season when home-run tallies were up all across the league, but his .279/.348/.522 slash line was still considered 23 percent better than the league average in that environment.
In the shortened 2020 season, his power seemingly corrected a bit with six homers in 44 games, but he also increased his walk rate to 14.5 percent after being at 9.4 percent the year prior.
The Royals seemingly felt that Dozier was in the process of a breakout and they decided to invest in him. Going into 2021, which was his age-28 season, Dozier and the Royals signed an extension that guaranteed him $25M over four years. It also contained a $10M club option for 2025 with a $1M buyout.
But his production cratered from essentially the moment the ink was dry on that contract. He hit .226/.289/.391 over 2021 and 2022 while striking out 26.7 percent of the time and walking at just a 7.4 percent rate, with that combined production leading to an 84 wRC+.
Last year was even worse, as his strikeout rate jumped to 31.9 percent and he produced a line of .183/.253/.305 in 91 plate appearances before getting released at the end of May.
Dozier hasn’t been in good form for a while, but the Royals are still paying him for the rest of the year. Perhaps another club will follow the Angels’ lead and give him a minor league deal, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.
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