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I knew the day was going to come, one way or another, but there's no way to prepare one's self for this sort of thing. Alexi Amarista was bound to get released, traded, or shown the door somehow -- and the fact that he lasted this long is just shy of miraculous -- but that still didn't prepare me for Friday's news that the Padres opted not to tender him a contract for the 2017 season. It's not that it came as a surprise like the club's decision to let Tyson Ross walk, and it makes all the baseball sense in the world, but sensibility and fandom are often incompatible. To me, for five seasons, Alexi Amarista was like Linus's security blanket: logically I knew he wasn't helping, and was probably doing more harm than good, but it was comforting to have him around.
Amarista leaves San Diego as my second-favorite Padres player of all time, behind only Joey Cora. I know it sounds blasphemous that my two favorite Padres ever aren't Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman, but those guys are gods, and gods aren't favorites; they just are. Like Cora, I'll continue to follow his career and be a fan no matter where he goes. And I do mean no matter where. If I've seen this movie before, he'll probably end up with the Dodgers just because the baseball deities find joy in kicking me in the shins and flipping me off. That, or the Cardinals will pick him up and he'll inexplicably pull a .400 OBP out of his tiny hat.
I know it's possible that the Padres could still eventually sign him to a minor league deal but that just doesn't make sense, and even if it did, that's a pretty feeble thing to put one's hope in. Instead I'm just hoping he ends up with a team I don't mind, who will give him a chance to play. Even that might be asking a bit much, so I guess the best thing to do would be to just try not to think about it until he signs somewhere.
Nothing lasts forever
— Joe Lanek (@TheThinGwynn) December 3, 2016
Here's Alexi in the rain pic.twitter.com/IrFUJ5P1R1