Stat of the Day and RonDL

From Buster Olney:

 

Nomar Garciaparra's assignment to the disabled list is his 13th in his career -- which is not the most among active players. The current leaders, according to David Bearman of ESPN Information and Statistics:

Doug Brocail, Houston, 14
Nomar Garciaparra, 13
John Smoltz, Boston, 13
Troy Percival, Tampa Bay, 13

The kicker, of course, is that all four of those players are currently on the disabled list.

 

When reading this, I thought about former Yankee Rondell White. Or, as I liked to call him RonDL White (and who I just found out is the son-in-law of Mets manager, Jerry Manuel). 

When Bernie Williams threatened to sign elsewhere as a free agent, the Yankees had a contract agreement in place with Albert Belle. To replace Bernie in CF, the Yankees had looked at many options, most popular of which was Rondell White, as Buster Olney--then a reporter for the New York Times--wrote in 1998. Why Rondell White? Because he had told Montreal General Manager Jim Beattie to trade him to the Yankees. What was the package discussed? Ricky Ledee, Mike Lowell and maybe a pitcher according to the New York Daily News. In the end, Belle reneged on the agreement, fearful of the scrutiny of playing in New York, and Bernie Williams decided to resign with the Yankees, leaving Rondell White on the Expos.

But in 2002, the Yankees, who had coveted White, signed him as a free agent. They must really coveted White because between 1996-2001, he was on the disabled list 8 times (and that's not counting days off where he needed a few days because of injury). But he stayed healthy most of that 2002 season (probably because of increased steroids and HGH use as the Mitchell Report revealed) which was a shame for the Yankees because his line of 240/.288/.378 was one of the worst of his career.

After the 2005 season, the Minnesota Twins signed White despite the fact he had now made it 9 trips to the DL in 13 seasons and had only played 97 games due to injury the year before for the Detroit Tigers. And here's how the rest of his career looked like according to Sportsnet:

Aug 7, 2007: Missed 6 games (right hamstring injury).
Aug 6, 2007: Right hamstring injury, day-to-day.
Jul 22, 2007: Missed 93 games (right calf injury).
Apr 9, 2007: Right calf injury, 15-day DL.
Dec 20, 2006: Re-signed by the Minnesota Twins to a one-year contract.
Sep 27, 2006: Missed 2 games (hamstring).
Sep 25, 2006: Hamstring, day-to-day.
Aug 24, 2006: Missed 13 games (hamstring).
Aug 11, 2006: Hamstring, 15-day DL.
Aug 10, 2006: Hamstring, day-to-day.
Aug 7, 2006: Missed 7 games (hamstring).
Aug 6, 2006: Hamstring, day-to-day.
Jul 16, 2006: Missed 22 games (shoulder injury).
Jun 30, 2006: Shoulder injury, 15-day DL (retroactive to Jun 18).
Jun 28, 2006: Shoulder injury, day-to-day.

So, in total, that's 12 DL trips in the 15 season career of Rondell White. Ouch.