So, at the start of the 2009 season, he was 27 years old with a mixed track record at AAA, had just missed a year with a serious shoulder injury, didn’t have a clear position, and failed to make a good impression on the new manager and GM in spring training, evidently–because the club DFA’d him, and he actually cleared waivers on April 1st. Any club could have had him for nothing at that point, and nobody wanted him.

When he got off to a good start at Tacoma that spring, it’s unfortunate that Seattle didn’t hang on to him at least long enough to give him one more chance in LF. It’s not like anybody had that job locked down. But, it’s also true that nobody in baseball thought Mike Morse was much of a prospect at that point. And his .250/.291/.481 line after the Nats called him up in late August 2009 didn’t exactly scream, “Haha! Y’all were WRONG about me!!!” either.

I suppose they could have given LaHair the 1B job in 2010, at age 27, instead of signing Casey Kotchman. He had a good year at AAA in 2009. Maybe the front office thought he did well in Tacoma that season because he was a bit old and had repeated that level a few times. Maybe they thought the younger Carp had a more promising future. Who knows, when they signed Cliff Lee, maybe they were already thinking about trading him for someone like Jesus Montero or Justin Smoak.

So the M’s let him go, and the Cubs signed him just to stash him away at AAA for two more years. If he hadn’t done so well in his September call-up last season, he’d probably still be in AAA now. If you’re a minor league 1B who strikes out a lot and has been stuck at AAA more than a couple times around, it’s hard to get people to take you seriously.