What Happens When Your Landlord Bats Leadoff? Ask a Baseball Player.

Shortly after haggling his means out of free-agent purgatory and into a brand new contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kiké Hernández requested his spouse, Mariana, to analyze any other marketplace. She contacted former Dodger Rich Hill’s spouse, Caitlin, with a request: Could the Hernándezes are living within the Hills’ space once more? 

The Hills had purchased the valuables, situated within the Toluca Lake community, in 2017, quickly after Rich signed a $48 million contract. The circle of relatives made up our minds to not promote it after Hill’s ultimate season with the crew in 2019. The space has since change into a well-liked vacation spot amongst Dodgers workforce. Catcher Austin Barnes lived there one season. Manager Dave Roberts has inquired about its availability. When Hernández rejoined the crew finally 12 months’s industry closing date, he moved into the home, which is a handy 20-minute force from Dodger Stadium, with get right of entry to to 3 other highways. 

“It’s very appealing, because of the location,” Hill mentioned. 

But that’s now not its most effective promoting level; virtually as necessary is that the house owner understands his tenants’ nomadic baseball way of life.

When on the lookout for a spot to are living, avid gamers ceaselessly rely on every different’s suggestions, connections, and familiarity with baseball’s distinctive agenda and shuttle. That has led to another more or less scorching range marketplace every wintry weather, when baseball avid gamers purchase, promote and industry properties among themselves — swapping properties, directing younger avid gamers to the proper spots and passing sure key houses down because the cycle repeats itself.

It isn’t unusual for avid gamers to report back to spring coaching with no place of abode for the common season. Sometimes loose brokers signal later than anticipated; infrequently trades occur with out caution. In the overall days of February, Toronto Blue Jays infielder Justin Turner used to be nonetheless on the lookout for a rent within the suburbs of Toronto to sync up together with his one-year, $13 million contract. Caleb Ferguson, a New York Yankees reliever received in early February, used to be scrambling to seek out someplace on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with a park within sight for his new child son. Surprised via a Feb. 11 industry from the Miami Marlins, Minnesota Twins reliever Steven Okert mentioned he had “no idea” the place he would are living within the Twin Cities. “I’ve never even been there before,” Okert mentioned. 

The number one downside is the period of the rent. The common season lasts about six months. Renting a space ceaselessly calls for an extended dedication. “It’s always a pain,” Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu mentioned. He described the method of discovering housing as “throughout my time in professional baseball, one of the hardest things to do,” which is why his spouse, Jordan, looks after it. Spouses ceaselessly shoulder the weight: Yency Almonte, the reliever who used to be traded from the Dodgers to the Chicago Cubs in January, will are living this summer time within the Chicagoland house of Joe Kelly, the reliever who used to be traded from the Chicago White Sox to the Dodgers closing summer time; their better halves brokered the deal.

In the offseason, LeMahieu lives within the Detroit suburb of Birmingham, Mich., the place he owns two properties. For just about a decade, he has rented out the secondary place of abode to more than a few Tigers. So many avid gamers have stayed there that LeMahieu has misplaced observe. The first tenant used to be 2d baseman Ian Kinsler. The longest-standing resident used to be pitcher Daniel Norris. “I think they all left the places better than they found them,” LeMahieu mentioned. “I came back and there was new stuff. Super clean. I was like, ‘Wow, this worked out really well.’”

In 2022, his ultimate 12 months in Milwaukee, reliever Brent Suter lived in a house as soon as occupied via former Brewers teammate Corey Knebel. Suter rented a townhouse via VRBO for his 2023 season with the Colorado Rockies. When he signed for 2024 with the Cincinnati Reds, his native land crew, Suter didn’t want to seek for a space. But he did have the ballplayer community to thank.

A couple of years previous, whilst pitching for Cincinnati, Wade Miley bought a four-bedroom house in within sight Anderson Township, Ohio. An older couple began construction on so much around the side road. Miley sooner or later discovered his new neighbors had been Suter’s in-laws. He known as his former teammate. “When I’m done with the Reds, I’m selling you this house,” Miley advised Suter. Suter laughed on the be offering. When Cincinnati positioned Miley on waivers after the 2021 season, Suter won any other textual content: “Go check out the house. We’ll open the garage for you.” Miley, Suter defined, “hooked us up with our dream house for life.”

During his time with the Cleveland Guardians, first baseman Carlos Santana lived in Bratenahl, Ohio, an prosperous suburb at the shores of Lake Erie. After Santana signed a three-year, $60 million maintain the Philadelphia Phillies heading into 2018, he rented his house to former teammate Edwin Encarnación. Santana didn’t closing lengthy in Philadelphia. The Phillies shipped him to the Seattle Mariners in December of 2018. Less than two weeks later, the Mariners traded Santana to Cleveland — in alternate for Encarnación. Santana moved again into his outdated space.

Edwin Encarnación and Carlos Santana had been Cleveland teammates in 2017. After that, issues were given extra difficult. (Duane Burleson / Getty Images)

Do now not take overall pity on those athletes, who play in a league the place the big-league minimal wage is $740,000. Teams supply them sources, suggestions and actual property brokers. Their personal brokers ceaselessly do the similar. The collective bargaining settlement comprises provisions that compensate them for his or her dwelling bills if they’re lower or traded. 

Their privilege nonetheless comprises headaches, and now not each serendipitous change ends luckily. In the summer time of 2005, the Boston Red Sox received an infielder named Alex Cora from Cleveland in alternate for fellow infielder Ramón Vázquez. The two Puerto Ricans had been buddies. They agreed to industry properties. “The price was the same,” Cora mentioned. He were dwelling in a four-bedroom, two-story position with a backyard. He used to be aghast when he moved into Vázquez’s condominium close to Faneuil Hall. “It was a one-bedroom, a f—ing matchbox,” Cora mentioned. 

The greenback does stretch additional clear of the coasts. Ferguson, the Yankees reliever, grew up about 20 mins out of doors of Columbus, Ohio, the house of Cleveland’s Triple-A associate. He harbors desires of renting his house there to some of the Clippers. He joked about his willingness to pay the utilities for doable tenants so long as they paid his loan. “I don’t want to make money off of you — I just want to stop losing it,” Ferguson mentioned. 

Rich Hill stumbled into his position as the owner of the Dodgers. During the 2021 season, Hill heard Barnes used to be commuting about two hours roundtrip to the ballpark. Barnes and his spouse, Nicole, had a new child son. The riding used to be draining. Hill discussed that his position in Toluca Lake used to be empty. “It’s a really nice house,” Barnes mentioned. “He just let us live there.” 

Barnes had higher good fortune than Roberts, who discovered the home occupied when he requested Hill about renting it. Hernández met the similar destiny after signing his new maintain the Dodgers. Hill used to be already renting to a circle of relatives for 2024. Turns out, non-ballplayers want properties, too. 

“As much as I want to rent it to the guys,” Hill mentioned, “I can’t kick the people out who are there right now.”

(The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya, Chad Jennings, Zack Meisel, C. Trent Rosecrans and Sahadev Sharma contributed to this file.)

(Illustration via Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photo of Kiké Hernández: Michael Zagaris / Oakland Athletics / Getty Images; Photo of Rich Hill: Will Newton / Getty Images; Photo of Wade Miley: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire )