Updating the Top 100: Devin Mesoraco

The concept of a one-hit wonder in popular music is both culturally pervasive and more or less objectively defined. How many times did a band release a song that reached the Billboard Top 40 (or whatever is determined to be a relevant criterion)? You probably have your favorite example that is incorrect unless it’s Spacehog’s In The Meantime.

We don’t talk much about the concept of one-hit wonders in sports, perhaps because they’re not as plentiful or as easily identified. Maybe it’s because a song is able to be consumed over and over again without degradation of its elements whereas at some point a great baseball season just becomes numbers on a page.

Devin Mesoraco had an amazing season in 2014. I was struggling to define how I would exactly determine what is and is not a one-hit wonder in baseball, but I will confidently assert that however you want to define it, Mesoraco is the best example of a player with a lengthy career with the Reds who had one standout season and not much of anything otherwise.

And just like we don’t ever collectively talk about any of Soft Cell’s catalog outside of Tainted Love, there isn’t much to say about Mesoraco’s time with the Reds since 2014.

Traded to the Mets for Matt Harvey in May, Mesoraco ends his Cincinnati career with a batting line of .234/.309/.405 (94 OPS+) over 402 games (spread over eight seasons!). He had 48 home runs as a Redleg and 162 RBI. On the basis of his non-descript 45 plate appearances with the Reds in 2018, Mesoraco remains at #202 on the all-time Reds list.