Shortly after haggling his means out of free-agent purgatory and into a brand new contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kiké Hernández requested his spouse, Mariana, to analyze one other market. She contacted former Dodger Wealthy Hill’s spouse, Caitlin, with a request: May the Hernándezes reside within the Hills’ home once more?
The Hills had purchased the property, situated within the Toluca Lake neighborhood, in 2017, quickly after Wealthy signed a $48 million contract. The household determined to not promote it after Hill’s ultimate season with the group in 2019. The home has since turn out to be a well-liked vacation spot amongst Dodgers personnel. Catcher Austin Barnes lived there one season. Supervisor Dave Roberts has inquired about its availability. When Hernández rejoined the group ultimately 12 months’s commerce deadline, he moved into the home, which is a handy 20-minute drive from Dodger Stadium, with entry to 3 totally different highways.
“It’s very interesting, due to the placement,” Hill stated.
However that’s not its solely promoting level; virtually as vital is that the house owner understands his tenants’ nomadic baseball life-style.
When looking for a spot to reside, gamers usually depend on one another’s suggestions, connections, and familiarity with baseball’s distinctive schedule and journey. That has led to a special type of sizzling range market every winter, when baseball gamers purchase, promote and commerce houses amongst themselves — swapping homes, directing younger gamers to the correct spots and passing sure key properties down because the cycle repeats itself.
It’s not unusual for gamers to report back to spring coaching and not using a residence for the common season. Typically free brokers signal later than anticipated; typically trades occur with out warning. Within the ultimate days of February, Toronto Blue Jays infielder Justin Turner was nonetheless searching for a lease within the suburbs of Toronto to sync up along with his one-year, $13 million contract. Caleb Ferguson, a New York Yankees reliever acquired in early February, was scrambling to search out someplace on Manhattan’s Higher East Aspect with a park close by for his new child son. Shocked by a Feb. 11 commerce from the Miami Marlins, Minnesota Twins reliever Steven Okert stated he had “no thought” the place he would reside within the Twin Cities. “I’ve by no means even been there earlier than,” Okert stated.
The first downside is the size of the lease. The common season lasts about six months. Renting a home usually requires an extended dedication. “It’s at all times a ache,” Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu stated. He described the method of discovering housing as “all through my time in skilled baseball, one of many hardest issues to do,” which is why his spouse, Jordan, takes care of it. Spouses usually shoulder the load: Yency Almonte, the reliever who was traded from the Dodgers to the Chicago Cubs in January, will reside this summer time within the Chicagoland dwelling of Joe Kelly, the reliever who was traded from the Chicago White Sox to the Dodgers final summer time; their wives brokered the deal.
Yankee Stadium is DJ LeMahieu’s on-field dwelling; he rents one other residence to his fellow ballplayers. (Alex Trautwig / MLB through Getty Photos)
Within the offseason, LeMahieu lives within the Detroit suburb of Birmingham, Mich., the place he owns two houses. For practically a decade, he has rented out the secondary residence to numerous Tigers. So many gamers have stayed there that LeMahieu has misplaced observe. The primary tenant was second baseman Ian Kinsler. The longest-standing resident was pitcher Daniel Norris. “I feel all of them left the locations higher than they discovered them,” LeMahieu stated. “I got here again and there was new stuff. Tremendous clear. I used to be like, ‘Wow, this labored out very well.’”
In 2022, his ultimate 12 months in Milwaukee, reliever Brent Suter lived in a house as soon as occupied by former Brewers teammate Corey Knebel. Suter rented a townhouse by means of VRBO for his 2023 season with the Colorado Rockies. When he signed for 2024 with the Cincinnati Reds, his hometown group, Suter didn’t must seek for a home. However he did have the ballplayer community to thank.
A number of years earlier, whereas pitching for Cincinnati, Wade Miley bought a four-bedroom dwelling in close by Anderson Township, Ohio. An older couple began constructing on quite a bit throughout the road. Miley ultimately discovered his new neighbors had been Suter’s in-laws. He known as his former teammate. “After I’m completed with the Reds, I’m promoting you this home,” Miley advised Suter. Suter laughed on the supply. When Cincinnati positioned Miley on waivers after the 2021 season, Suter obtained one other textual content: “Go take a look at the home. We’ll open the storage for you.” Miley, Suter defined, “hooked us up with our dream home for all times.”
Throughout his time with the Cleveland Guardians, first baseman Carlos Santana lived in Bratenahl, Ohio, an prosperous suburb on the shores of Lake Erie. After Santana signed a three-year, $60 million take care of the Philadelphia Phillies heading into 2018, he rented his dwelling to former teammate Edwin Encarnación. Santana didn’t final lengthy in Philadelphia. The Phillies shipped him to the Seattle Mariners in December of 2018. Lower than two weeks later, the Mariners traded Santana to Cleveland — in trade for Encarnación. Santana moved again into his previous home.
Edwin Encarnación and Carlos Santana had been Cleveland teammates in 2017. After that, issues obtained extra difficult. (Duane Burleson / Getty Photos)
Don’t take whole pity on these athletes, who play in a league the place the big-league minimal wage is $740,000. Groups present them assets, suggestions and actual property brokers. Their very own brokers usually do the identical. The collective bargaining settlement incorporates provisions that compensate them for his or her residing bills if they’re reduce or traded.
Their privilege nonetheless incorporates issues, and never each serendipitous swap ends fortunately. In the summertime of 2005, the Boston Crimson Sox acquired an infielder named Alex Cora from Cleveland in trade for fellow infielder Ramón Vázquez. The 2 Puerto Ricans had been associates. They agreed to commerce homes. “The worth was the identical,” Cora stated. He had been residing in a four-bedroom, two-story place with a yard. He was aghast when he moved into Vázquez’s condo close to Faneuil Corridor. “It was a one-bedroom, a f—ing matchbox,” Cora stated.
The greenback does stretch additional away from the coasts. Ferguson, the Yankees reliever, grew up about 20 minutes exterior of Columbus, Ohio, the house of Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate. He harbors goals of renting his dwelling there to one of many Clippers. He joked about his willingness to pay the utilities for potential tenants so long as they paid his mortgage. “I don’t wish to earn cash off of you — I simply wish to cease shedding it,” Ferguson stated.
Wealthy Hill stumbled into his function as the owner of the Dodgers. Through the 2021 season, Hill heard Barnes was commuting about two hours roundtrip to the ballpark. Barnes and his spouse, Nicole, had a new child son. The driving was draining. Hill talked about that his place in Toluca Lake was empty. “It’s a very nice home,” Barnes stated. “He simply allow us to reside there.”
Barnes had higher luck than Roberts, who discovered the home occupied when he requested Hill about renting it. Hernández met the identical destiny after signing his new take care of the Dodgers. Hill was already renting to a household for 2024. Seems, non-ballplayers want homes, too.
“As a lot as I wish to hire it to the fellows,” Hill stated, “I can’t kick the individuals out who’re there proper now.”
(The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya, Chad Jennings, Zack Meisel, C. Trent Rosecrans and Sahadev Sharma contributed to this report.)
(Illustration by Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Picture of Kiké Hernández: Michael Zagaris / Oakland Athletics / Getty Photos; Picture of Wealthy Hill: Will Newton / Getty Photos; Picture of Wade Miley: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire )