Source: AP (via Yahoo!)
Sammy may well be done for the year. He had a lesion removed from underneath a toenail, and this sort of thing has kept him out for a while in the past.
Let's go ahead and say this is it. It may well not be, but let's just say. We can now without any hesitation or ridiculous wishcasting that he's going to find his swing declare Sammy Sosa's one season as a Baltimore Oriole a complete, utter, pathetic, dismal failure. Sosa hit .221/.295/.376 for the Birds, which is well below even what the worst forecast could have said. .221/.295 was probably very low-end, but a .376 slugging percentage and 14 homers in 102 games? That's just upsettingly bad.
When Sammy was healthy, he came to play, and as far as we've heard, was never a distraction or problem attitude-wise. Sammy tried. But Sammy's swing and power were completely absent. He looked overmatched in probably 90% of the at-bats of his I saw, and that's no exaggeration. Sosa was a total flop, and frankly the sooner we can forget about this experiment, the better.
Is Sosa done? I would say he probably is. Even if he comes back somewhere next year (he would likely want to return to the NL despite that he can DH in the AL, giving him rest and getting him out of the field, both pluses), I don't think he's going to contribute in any meaningful way again.
A decline's a decline, and Sosa's has been there for years, but to go from still being a rather useful player to being an absolute waste of at-bats is a hell of a thing.
Thanks for the effort, Sammy, but no thanks for the performance.