Here is something that I’ve meant to do for a while. Three players, same position. Here they are in 2017:

2017	AGE	AB	H	D	T	HR	BB	AVG	OBP	SLG	WAR
A	31	523	134	18	1	33	61	.256	.334	.484	7.7
B	31	479	145	33	4	0	76	.303	.401	.388	6.0
C	27	551	159	38	4	24	44	.289	.343	.503	8.7

Two power hitters. Player A slugs homers; player C hits fewer home runs but scatters more doubles. Player C also wins the Lake Superior Player Award. Player B is an on-base machine. All three are clearly All-Star caliber players.

Same three players, now in 2018:

2018	AGE	AB	H	D	T	HR	BB	AVG	OBP	SLG	WAR
A	32	444	108	19	0	24	72	.243	.349	.448	6.8
B	32	504	177	24	6	2	82	.351	.442	.435	9.1
C	28	475	144	31	0	21	43	.303	.364	.501	8.9

Player C has another outstanding season. Player B has a career season and wins the Lake Superior Player Award. Player A puts together another strong season, slugging home runs and drawing walks.

And once more, the players in 2019:

2019	AGE	AB	H	D	T	HR	BB	AVG	OBP	SLG	WAR
A	33	526	138	22	2	17	65	.262	.344	.409	6.7
B	33	532	155	14	6	3	74	.291	.379	.357	5.5
C	29	417	117	28	0	12	34	.281	.335	.434	5.2

Player A holds steady in terms of WAR, homering less but doubling more. Players B and C come down from their 2018 highs, but they both post 5+ WAR seasons, nothing to scoff at. For the fun of it, let’s look at their total WAR over these three seasons.

2017-19	WAR
A	21.2
B	20.6
C	22.8

So here is the big question: which player do you want on your team going forward? All three of these players became free agents after the 2019 season. There wouldn’t seem to be a bad choice among them: all three are clearly All-Star quality, even in their worse seasons. Perhaps you prefer Player A’s power or Player B’s on-base skills or the fact that Player C is four years younger than the other two.

Even now, looking back, I would say that it’s a virtual toss-up. And I recall being surprised at the time of how little competition there was for their services in the off-season.

The power-hitting Player A is third-baseman Fu-Chi Li, then of Milwaukee. The on-base machine Player B is third-baseman Kevin Thomas, then of Toronto. The younger Player C is third-baseman John Roberson, then of Owen Sound.

Let’s see what they did in 2020:

2020	AGE	AB	H	D	T	HR	BB	AVG	OBP	SLG	WAR
Li	34	491	111	27	0	20	76	.226	.336	.403	6.1
Thomas	34	472	142	18	4	5	87	.301	.410	.388	7.0
Roberson	30	323	69	8	0	9	25	.214	.272	.322	1.8

Li only has a .226 average but all those doubles, homers, and walks keep him productive. Thomas has another strong season and posts a .410 OBP. Roberson … umm … ouch. Well, maybe that was a fluke.

Next season:

2021	AGE	AB	H	D	T	HR	BB	AVG	OBP	SLG	WAR
Li	35	478	131	28	0	24	72	.274	.370	.483	6.0
Thomas	35	521	172	25	6	3	80	.330	.424	.418	5.6
Roberson	31	353	74	13	1	8	31	.210	.279	.320	0.7

Thomas would have been paid $29 million in 2020, but he executed his player option and began the off-season asking well over $30 million per season. Toronto all of a sudden had a big hole at third base. I couldn’t afford Thomas’s request, so I looked at Li and Roberson. Chicago snapped Li up for 6 years/$111 million or $18.5 million per season. I offered Roberson 5 years/$110 million or an average of $22 million per season and was surprised that nobody else drove the bidding up further. Thomas waited most of the off-season to sign, then was scooped up by Owen Sound for a bargain: 3 years/$39 million.