Mike Napoli

On January 21, Napoli was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays along with outfielder Juan Rivera in exchange for outfielder Vernon Wells. Four days later, he was traded by the Blue Jays to the Texas Rangers in exchange for pitcher Frank Francisco.

On May 29, he was involved in a controversial play at home plate that ended the game in the ninth inning in a game against the Kansas City Royals. Napoli was at first and Elvis Andrus was up against Joakim Soria. Andrus hit a shot past Eric Hosmer that got into right field. Napoli was sent home by the third-base coach. Hosmer threw a gun to the plate. Brayan Pena tagged Napoli on the upper shoulder, but Napoli was called safe by the home-plate umpire, giving the Rangers a walk-off win. Pena was enraged and arguing with the umpires with manager Ned Yost. Replays showed that Pena did not block the plate, but tagged Napoli, who got his feet in just before the tag. In his first season with the Rangers he batted .320 with 30 home runs (10th in the American League) and 75 RBIs, while improving his defense (throwing out 36% of base-stealers; 4th-best in the league). He had a .631 slugging percentage in 369 at bats. Read Less