It’s no secret that Zack Greinke loves to hit. In fact, he loves it so much that he actually spends a lot of time in the cage working on his hitting – which probably accounts for that shiny new Silver Slugger trophy on his mantle.

But are you aware that the newest Dodger, 33-year-old right-hander Dan Haren, is also pretty fond of hitting? If you have ever been to a game where he faced the Dodgers you are probably are.

Haren, who was born and raised a short 12 miles from Dodger Stadium in nearby Monterey Park, has a career batting average of .215 in 11 big league season. And while this may not exactly jump out at you at first glance, when you separate his National League offensive numbers from his American League offensive numbers, they increase exponentially.

In his limited at bats in five and a half seasons in the AL with the A’s and Angels, Haren hit only .130 (3 for 23) with one double and 3 RBIs; but in his five and a half seasons in the NL with the Cardinals, Diamondbacks and Nationals he hit .222 (64 for 288) with 2 home runs, 23 doubles and 26 RBIs. And while these aren’t exactly Greinke-like numbers, they aren’t all that bad when you look at the overall batting averages of most MLB starting pitchers.

It’s hard to find a downside to the Dan Haren signing – especially for the price.
(Photo credit – Patrick McDermott)

Haren was drafted in the 2nd round (72nd overall pick) of the 2001 MLB First Year Player Draft out of Pepperdine University by the St. Louis Cardinals. He made his MLB debut with the Cards on June 30, 2003 in a losing effort against the hated Giants and collect his first MLB win three weeks later on July 19 against (uggh) the Dodgers. He earned his 129th career win in his final outing of the 2013 season on September 28, 2013 in a brilliant 2-0 shutout against the (newly) hated Dbacks, allowing only four hits and one walk while striking out five in his 7 innings of work.

And while the 33-year-old three-time All-Star has struggled with right shoulder inflammation over the past two seasons, he was voted the AL Player of the Week on April 18, 2011 while with the Angels. He also threw a 14-strikeout, three-hit, 3-0 complete-game shutout against the Seattle Mariners on May 24, 2012.

As expected of a 33-year-old/11-year MLB veteran, Haren’s fastball velocity has diminished a bit over the years but he still hits 89 mph on a regular basis. He also has an 85 mph cutter and an 83 mph splitter to keep hitters off-balance.

When you look at the number of failed four and five starters the Dodgers have signed over the past several years (i.e. Jason Schmidt, Ted Lilly, Aaron Harang and Chris Capuano to name only a few), it’s pretty easy to get excited about the Dan Haren signing – especially at the one-year/$10 million price tag he came in at. And even though the Dodgers are thought to still be in on Masahiro Tanaka and possibly even David Price, locking up Haren as a solid number four or number five could prove to be a brilliant move by Stan Kasten, Ned Colletti and the rest of the Dodgers front office and scouts involved in this deal.

Well played, sirs… well played.