Astros History: Miguel Tejada

Before he was a Houston Astros, Miguel Tejada was a shortstop with the Oakland Athletics and a pretty good one at that. During his seven years as an Athletic Tejada was a two-time All-Star and an American League Most Valuable Player. He also posted a 24 WAR, according to Baseball-Reference.

After the 2003 season, Tejada signed a six year $72 million dollar contract with the Baltimore Orioles. After four seasons as an Oriole he was acquired by the Astros for Matt Albers, Mike Constanzo, Troy Patton, Dennis Sarfate and Luke Scott. This was one of the first trades Ed Wade made after being named the Astros general manager. The acquisition came a day before Tejada's name appeared in the steroid Mitchell Report. You remember that report it was the one that named Roger Clemens as well.

In Tejada's two years with Houston he was named to two All-Star teams and posted a 4.6 WAR. The 35 year-old shortstop was granted free agency at the end of the 2009 season ending his short tenure with the Astros. He would sign with Baltimore for the 2010 season but was traded to the San Diego Padres right before the trade deadline.

I was never a big fan of Tejada's I thought he should have been playing third instead of short. I'm actually to find that Baseball Reference's dWAR rated him above average for the 2008 season and below average for the 2009. FanGraphs defensive metrics confirm that assessment. Either way I thought Adam Everett should have been playing short and Tejada should have been playing third. It wasn't like the Astros had a third basemen to start the season.

As chance would have it the Astros did find a decent third basemen in Ty Wiggington and Tejada played a pretty solid shortstop for the 2008. Everett after being unceremoniously granted free agency signed on with the Minnesota Twins and played only an average shortstop. His 2009 season with the Detroit Tigers would be better but unfortunately he wasn't as dominate defensively as he had been with the Astros prior to Carlos Lee running him over in shallow left field.

Tejada after sitting out the 2012 season is playing the infield for the upstart Kansas City Royals so we'll be seeing him again at some point this season.