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We already talked about this during Hall of Fame season, but according to a report out of Cincinnati (via MLBDD) it looks likelier than ever that Scott Rolen a) won't be retiring after all and b) will join the rest of the free agents with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who inexplicably do not have an expensive third baseman yet.
We've already talked at length about just how good Rolen was, and how deserving a Hall of Famer he'll be when he does retire—click that Hall of Fame link—and I'll leave it to Dodgers fans to decide whether he fits as an upgrade over Luis Cruz, who is probably not a player auto-generated by Baseball Mogul.
The question for Cardinals fans: Are you a go-out-on-top or a play-until-they-cart-you-off? I'm on the record, already, as the latter—Scott Rolen's only going to play once, and I want to see him as much as I can, even if his shoulder injury ruined what could have been one of the best careers ever at the position.
At this point Rolen's exceedingly unlikely to go out on top, considering "top" for him was sometime in 2004. But I hope he gets another shot, because even a pretty-good season might be enough to make people realize that his career didn't end 10 years ago.
Reminder: Scott Rolen has played 843 games, hit .274/.344/.447, and made four all-star games since his shoulder exploded.
— viva el birdos (@vivaelbirdos) February 1, 2013
It's been sad to watch an all-time-great turn into Joe Randa with really good defense, but Joe Randa with really good defense gets job offers into his late 30s.