When the Red Sox obtained Carney Lansford from the Angels after the 1980 season, it appeared that the 23-year old would be a mainstay in the Boston lineup for years to come. The California native had played three solid seasons for the Angels and finished third in the 1978 AL Rookie of the Year vote.
Lansford manned the hot corner for the Red Sox during the strike-shortened 1981 season, a year in which he won the batting title with a .336 average. Lansford also won his lone Silver Slugger that season, though he had just 4 homers, 23 doubles and 52 RBI over 102 games.
The very next year, 1982, Wade Boggs made his debut in Boston and the Red Sox suddenly had a logjam at third base. That season, Lansford played 114 games at third and was the DH in 14 contests. Consequently, Boggs ended up playing more games at first base (49) than at third (44), even though he was a natural third baseman. Someone had to go.
The Red Sox, rightfully, saw more upside in the 24-year-old Boggs than the 25-year-old Lansford. So, during the 1982 off-season, Boston sent Lansford to Oakland in exchange for Tony Armas, in what turned out to be a great deal for Boston.
Armas placed second in the AL with 36 home runs in 1983 and in 1984 led the AL with 43 HR, 123 RBI, 77 extra-base hits and 339 total bases. From 1980 to 1985, Armas hit more homers (187) than any other AL player.
At the time Lansford was traded, many Red Sox fans (myself included), couldn’t believe that the team would swap a player who had batted .301 and .336 over the preceding two seasons. Lansford just seemed too good to deal away.
Yet, while Lansford was always a good player, I had somehow perceived him as being a lot better than he really was. Though I had long thought of Lansford as a great player, it turns out that he was just a good one, which is perfectly respectable. For perspective, Lansford was an All Star just once (1988) in his 15 seasons.
Though Lansford was a career .290 hitter, which is pretty sweet, he was mostly a singles hitter, absent the power of a typical corner infielder.
Lansford hit 151 career homers and popped a career high of 19 in three seasons. He hit 30 doubles just three times and topped out at 31. As a result, he had a .411 career slugging percentage, which is pretty weak. Not once did he slug .500. He also topped out at 80 RBI in 1980 and in most years knocked in about 45-65 runs. He just wasn't a significant run-producer.
But defense matters, right?
Well, Lansford never won a Gold Glove, so he wasn’t considered an elite defender. Yet, he posted a .966 career fielding percentage as a third baseman, while the league average at that position was .951. Lansford also swiped 224 bases over his career and stole at least 20 in five seasons.
All in all, Carney Lansford was a very good player, but not a great one, as I once believed. There’s nothing wrong with that. He played in three World Series with the A's, losing in 1988 and 1990 and winning in 1989.
But, in retrospect, the Red Sox clearly did the right thing in betting on Boggs over Lansford after his two solid seasons in Boston, and in receiving Armas in exchange for him.
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