Shortly after escaping free-agent purgatory and negotiating a new contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kik Hernandez asked his wife Mariana to check out another market. He contacted former Dodger Rich Hill’s wife, Caitlin, with a request: Could Hernandez move into the Hills’ house again?
The Hills purchased the property, located in the Toluca Lake neighborhood, in 2017, shortly after Rich signed the $48 million contract. The family decided not to sell after Hill’s final season with the team in 2019. The home has since become a popular destination among Dodgers personnel. Catcher Austin Barnes stayed there one season. Manager Dave Roberts has inquired about its availability. When Hernandez rejoined the team at last year’s trade deadline, he moved into the home, which is a convenient 20-minute drive from Dodger Stadium, with access to three different highways.
“It’s very attractive because of the location,” Hill said.
But that’s not its only selling point; Almost equally important is that the homeowner understands the nomadic baseball lifestyle of his tenants.
When finding a place to stay, players often rely on each other’s recommendations, connections, and familiarity with baseball’s unique schedule and travel. This has led to a different kind of hot stove market each winter, when baseball players buy, sell and trade houses among themselves – swapping houses, directing young players to the right places and Some pass on key assets as the cycle repeats itself.
It is not unusual for players to report to spring training without residency for the regular season. Sometimes free agents sign later than expected; Sometimes trading happens without any warning. In late February, Toronto Blue Jays infielder Justin Turner was still looking for a lease in the suburbs of Toronto to accommodate his one-year, $13 million contract. Caleb Ferguson, a New York Yankees reliever acquired in early February, was struggling to find a park nearby for his newborn son on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Surprised by the Miami Marlins’ February 11 deal, Minnesota Twins reliever Steven Okert said he had “no idea” where he would live in the Twin Cities. “I’d never been there before,” Okert said.
The primary problem is the length of the lease. The regular season lasts for approximately six months. Renting a home often requires a long commitment. “It’s always a pain,” Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu said. He described the process of finding housing as “one of the hardest things I’ve had to do, during my entire time in professional baseball,” which is why his wife, Jordan, takes care of it. Spouses often carry the burden: Yancy Almonte, reliever who was traded from the Dodgers to the Chicago Cubs in January, will live in Joe Kelly’s Chicagoland home this summer, reliever who was traded from the Chicago White Sox to the Dodgers last fall Heat; Their wives brokered the deal.
In the offseason, LeMahieu lives in the Detroit suburb of Birmingham, Michigan, where he owns two homes. For almost a decade, he has rented out secondary housing to various tigers. So many players have stayed there that LeMahieu has lost track. The first tenant was second baseman Ian Kinsler. The longest-serving resident was pitcher Daniel Norris. “I think they all left better than the places they found them,” LeMahieu said. “I came back and there was new stuff. Very clean. I said, ‘Wow, that worked really well.’
In 2022, in his final year in Milwaukee, reliever Brent Suter lived in the house once occupied by former Brewers teammate Corey Knebel. Suter rented a townhouse through VRBO for his 2023 season with the Colorado Rockies. When he signed with his hometown team, the Cincinnati Reds, through 2024, Suter didn’t need to look for a home. But he had the Ballplayers Network to thank.
A few years earlier, while practicing law for Cincinnati, Wade Miley had purchased a four-bedroom house in nearby Anderson Township, Ohio. An elderly couple started construction on a lot across the street. Miley eventually learns that her new neighbors were her suitor’s in-laws. He called his former partner. “When I’m done with the Reds, I’ll sell you this house,” Miley told Suter. Suter laughed at this proposal. When Cincinnati placed Miley on waivers after the 2021 season, Suter got another message: “Go check the house. We’ll open the garage for you.” Miley, Suter explained, “hooked us up to our dream home for life.”
During his time with the Cleveland Guardians, first baseman Carlos Santana lived in Brettenhall, Ohio, an affluent suburb on the shores of Lake Erie. After Santana signed a three-year, $60 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2018, he rented his home to former teammate Edwin Encarnación. Santana did not last long in Philadelphia. The Phillies sent him to the Seattle Mariners in December 2018. Less than two weeks later, the Mariners traded Santana to Cleveland in exchange for Encarnación. Santana went back to her old house.
Don’t be entirely kind to these athletes, who play in a league where the big league minimum salary is $740,000. The teams provide them with resources, recommendations, and real estate agents. Their own agents often do the same. Collective bargaining agreements include provisions that compensate people for their living expenses if they are cut or traded.
There are still complications to their privilege, and not every casual exchange ends happily. In the summer of 2005, the Boston Red Sox acquired an infielder named Alex Cora from Cleveland in exchange for fellow infielder Ramon Vazquez. Both were Puerto Rican friends. They agreed to the business houses. “The price was the same,” Cora said. He was living in a four-bedroom, two-story place with a yard. He was surprised when he moved into Vazquez’s apartment near Faneuil Hall. “It was a matchbox in a bedroom,” Cora said.
The dollar moves further away from the coasts. Ferguson, a Yankees reliever, grew up about 20 minutes outside Columbus, Ohio, home of Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate. He dreams of renting his house there to some Clippers. He mocked her willingness to pay the utilities for potential tenants as long as they paid off her mortgage. Ferguson said, “I don’t want to make money off of you – I just want to stop you from losing it.”
Rich Hill was unsuccessful in his role as landlord of the Dodgers. During the 2021 season, Hill heard that Barnes was making a nearly two-hour roundtrip trip to the ballpark. Barnes and his wife Nicole had an infant son. Driving was tiring. Hill mentioned that his place in Toluca Lake was vacant. “It’s a really nice house,” Barnes said. “He just let us be there.”
Barnes had better luck than Roberts, finding possession of the house when he asked Hill about renting it. Hernandez suffered the same fate after signing his new deal with the Dodgers. Hill was already renting to a family for 2024. Turns out, non-ballplayers need homes too.
“As much as I want to rent it to people, I can’t kick out the people who are there right now,” Hill said.
