Loyalty and Longevity Pt. 11: Mike Greenwell

In this series, I look at players who played their entire Major League career with the Red Sox, as long as said Major League career lasted at least ten years.

When I was first getting into baseball (1991), the Red Sox had two major superstars and a few other star players.  Mike Greenwell was one of those star players, a mainstay in left field and a two-time All Star at the time.  Unfortunately, the rest of his career from that point on was a little more ordinary.

Greenwell was selected in the third round of the 1982 draft and moved through the system fairly quickly.  He already made his Major League debut in Boston in 1985 and made an instant impact, hitting four home runs in just 17 games.  Unfortunately, the Red Sox outfield was tough to crack (Dwight Evans, Tony Armas, and Jim Rice), particularly on the corners where Greenwell would have fit in.  That meant that he was back in the minors to start the 1986 season and did not come back up until July.  At that point he was there to stay, though in a part-time role.  He played in just 31 games, with a similar batting line, but no home runs.  He played in two games in the ALCS against the Angels and four against the Mets in the World Series, but had just one hit in five at-bats.

1987 saw Greenwell become a regular player, mostly in right field with Evans moving to first base for part of the season, but he also began playing in left, the position he would play for most of his career.  He finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year vote in a deep rookie class.  He had an impressive batting line of .328/.386/.570 with 19 home runs and 89 RBIs.  

Greenwell had his best season in 1988, a year in which he finished second in the AL MVP vote to Jose Canseco.  He rang up career highs in hits (192), doubles (39), triples (8), home runs (22), RBIs (119), stolen bases (16), and walks (87, versus just 36 strikeouts).  His line was a very impressive .325/.416/.531.  He was named to the All Star team for the first time and won his only Silver Slugger.  Unfortunately, Canseco's 40/40 season was too much to top.  

That was his peak, and even though Greenwell was just 25 in 1988, he would never have another season like it.  He was still plenty good in 1989 as he hit .308/.370/.443 with 14 home runs and 95 RBIs in his second All Star season.  He declined further in 1990, hitting .297/.367/.434 with 14 home runs and 73 RBIs.  He bounced back to .300 the next season, but his power numbers dipped even further.  Injuries then limited him to just 49 games in 1992.

Greenwell had his last really good season in 1993, hitting .315/.379/.480 with 13 home runs and 72 RBIs.  The next three seasons, Greenwell was slightly above average, never quite hitting .300 again and with no more than 15 home runs.  He played in just 77 games in his final season in 1996, but had one very interesting game on September 2 when he hit two home runs and a double and drove in all nine runs the team scored that day, a record.

A number of veteran players left Boston after 1996, including Roger Clemens and Jose Canseco, and Mike Greenwell followed suit.  He went to Japan, but played in just a handful of games and there was talk of him returning to play in the U.S., though he never did.  He finished up his twelve-year career hitting .303/.368/.463 with 130 home runs and 726 RBIs.  Decent numbers, but he was never quite the star he was expected to become after 1988.  He was still one of my favorite players.