Shortly after bargaining his way out of free agency purgatory and signing a new contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kiké Hernández asked his wife, Mariana, to investigate another market. He contacted former Dodger Rich Hill’s wife, Caitlin, to ask: Could the Hernandezes move back into the Hills home?
The Hills had purchased the property, located in the Toluca Lake neighborhood, in 2017, shortly after Rich signed a $48 million contract. The family decided not to sell it after Hill’s final season with the team in 2019. Since then, the house has become a popular destination among Dodgers personnel. Catcher Austin Barnes lived there for a season. Manager Dave Roberts has inquired about his availability. When Hernandez joined the team at last year’s trade deadline, he moved into the house, which is a 20-minute drive from Dodger Stadium, with access to three different highways.
“It’s very attractive because of its location,” Hill said.
But that’s not its only selling point; Almost as important is that the landlord understands the nomadic baseball lifestyle of his tenants.
When looking for a place to live, players often rely on others’ recommendations, connections and familiarity with baseball’s unique schedule and travel. That has led to a different kind of hot-stove market each winter, when baseball players buy, sell and trade houses with each other: they trade houses, direct young players to the right places and pass on certain key properties as the cycle repeats.
It is not uncommon for players to report to spring training without a residency for the regular season. Sometimes free agents sign later than expected; Sometimes operations are carried out without prior notice. In the final days of February, Toronto Blue Jays infielder Justin Turner was still searching for a lease in the Toronto suburbs to time his one-year, $13 million contract. Caleb Ferguson, a New York Yankees reliever acquired in early February, was struggling to find a place on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with a nearby park for his newborn son. Surprised by a February. 11 of the Miami Marlins, Minnesota Twins reliever Steven Okert said he had “no idea” where he would live in the Twin Cities. “I’ve never been there before,” Okert said.
The main problem is the length of the lease. The regular season lasts about six months. Renting a home usually requires a longer commitment. “It’s always painful,” Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu said. He described the process of finding housing as “during my time in professional baseball, one of the hardest things to do,” which is why his wife, Jordan, handles it. Spouses often shoulder the burden: Yency Almonte, the reliever who was traded from the Dodgers to the Chicago Cubs in January, will live in the Chicago home of Joe Kelly, the reliever who was traded from the White Sox, this summer. from Chicago to the Dodgers last time. summer; His wives negotiated the deal.
Yankee Stadium is the on-field home of DJ LeMahieu; He rents another residence to his fellow baseball players. (Alex Trautwig/MLB via Getty Images)
During the offseason, LeMahieu lives in Birmingham, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, where he owns two homes. For almost a decade, he has rented the second home to various Tigers. So many players have stayed there that LeMahieu has lost track. The first starter was second baseman Ian Kinsler. The longest resident was pitcher Daniel Norris. “I think everyone left the places better than they found them,” LeMahieu said. “I came back and there were new things. Super clean. I thought, ‘Wow, this worked really well.'”
In 2022, his final year in Milwaukee, reliever Brent Suter lived in a house once occupied by his former Brewers teammate Corey Knebel. Suter rented a house through VRBO for his 2023 season with the Colorado Rockies. When he signed for 2024 with the Cincinnati Reds, his hometown team, Suter didn’t need to look for a house. But he did have to thank the network of players.
A few years earlier, while pitching for Cincinnati, Wade Miley bought a four-bedroom house in nearby Anderson Township, Ohio. An older couple started building on land across the street. Miley eventually found out that his new neighbors were Suter’s in-laws. He called his former teammate. “When I’m done with the Reds, I’ll sell you this house,” Miley told Suter. Suter laughed at the offer. When Cincinnati placed Miley on waivers after the 2021 season, Suter received another text message: “Go see the house. We will open the garage for you.” Miley, Suter explained, “connected us with our lifelong dream home.”
During his time with the Cleveland Guardians, first baseman Carlos Santana lived in Bratenahl, Ohio, an affluent suburb on the shores of Lake Erie. After Santana signed a three-year, $60 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies heading into 2018, he returned home with former teammate Edwin Encarnación. Santana didn’t last long in Philadelphia. The Phillies traded him to the Seattle Mariners in December 2018. Less than two weeks later, the Mariners traded Santana to Cleveland in exchange for Encarnación. Santana returned to his old house.
Edwin Encarnación and Carlos Santana were Cleveland teammates in 2017. After that, things got more complicated. (Duane Burleson/Getty Images)
There is no need to feel total pity for these athletes, who play in a league where the major league minimum salary is $740,000. The teams provide them with resources, recommendations and real estate agents. Their own agents often do the same. The collective bargaining agreement contains provisions that compensate them for their living expenses if they are cut or traded.
Their privilege still has complications, and not all chance exchanges end happily. In the summer of 2005, the Boston Red Sox acquired an infielder named Alex Cora from Cleveland in exchange for infielder Ramón Vázquez. The two Puerto Ricans were friends. They agreed to exchange houses. “The price was the same,” Cora said. He had been living in a two-story, four-bedroom place with a patio. He was sad when he moved into Vázquez’s apartment near Faneuil Hall. “It was a fucking bedroom matchbox,” Cora said.
The dollar spreads even further from the coasts. Ferguson, the Yankees reliever, grew up about 20 minutes from Columbus, Ohio, the home of Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate. He dreams of renting his house there to one of the Clippers. He joked about his willingness to pay prospective tenants’ utilities as long as they paid his mortgage. “I don’t want to make money off you, I just want to stop losing it,” Ferguson said.
Rich Hill assumed his role as owner of the Dodgers. During the 2021 season, Hill heard that Barnes traveled approximately two hours to and from the stadium. Barnes and his wife, Nicole, had a newborn son. Driving was exhausting. Hill mentioned that his place in Toluca Lake was empty. “It’s a really nice house,” Barnes said. “He just let us live there.”
Barnes was luckier than Roberts, who found the house occupied when he asked Hill if he could rent it. Hernández suffered the same fate after signing his new contract with the Dodgers. Hill was already renting to a family for 2024. Turns out non-players need houses, too.
“As much as I want to rent it to guys,” Hill said, “I can’t kick out the people that are there right now.”
(The AthleticFabian Ardaya, Chad Jennings, Zack Meisel, C. Trent Rosecrans and Sahadev Sharma contributed to this report).
(Illustration by Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photo of Kiké Hernández: Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images; Rich Hill Photo: Will Newton/Getty Images; Wade Miley Photo: Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire)
