The news that Adam Eaton was not going to be part of the Phillies plans in 2009 was predictable, but still hard to believe considering the optimism that came when the Phillies signed Eaton to a 3 year deal in November 2006.

No one expected Eaton to rattle off a couple of Cy Youngs or anything, but even the greatest pessimist couldn’t have imagined how absolutely atrocious Eaton would be for the better part of his Phillies career.

14-18, 6.10 ERA, 1.63 WHIP, 15.24 baserunners per 9 innings.

We are nostalgic for bad Phillies pickups, either because of who we traded to get them (Ivan Dejesus and Von Hayes come to mind) or based on how much we paid to sign them vs. what they produced in return (Danny Tartabull and Freddy Garcia, among others). But Eaton has to go down as the worst free-agent signing in Phillies history, based on the amount of money the Phillies sunk into him and the godawful results he delivered.

Phillies Nation and an article on Baseball Digest Daily, written by Crashburn Alley blogger Bill Baer, both deliver a dose of humanity to the situation. I get where they are coming from. I am sure that the last 2 years have been ones that Adam Eaton would sooner forget, despite the fact that he became a very rich man during them. Spending money that even you may not feel was particularly earned can’t be the best feeling in the world.

Then watching the team that has you under contract, and shunned you during their successful playoff run, try and trade you for next to nothing and see them fail in attempting to do so must suck royally.

Eaton goes into spring training on a collision course with a release by the Phillies, and the inevitable reclamation project by another team.

I’d feel worse for Eaton if he had ever seemed genuinely annoyed by his startling level of sucking. The right-hander’s quotes after some games were always an interesting read to see if he was nonchalant or just in denial.

Even recently, he seemed unsure of why he was not part of the Phillies’ plans down the stretch and in the playoffs. He seems to think he’s just a guy with a couple bad outings here and there, but not someone who shouldn’t be sent out there every 5 days. His inability to look within makes him a difficult player to root for, during the good (not that many) and the bad (lots of ‘em) times.