Imagine joining a team, staying for four seasons, and going to the World Series in each one of them. The circumstances that brought third baseman Scott Brosius to New York were certainly odd — he was, at the time, a modest return in the Kenny Rogers salary dump ahead of the 1998 campaign — and nobody expected much from him given his horrible 1997 campaign in which he was the worst hitter in baseball per wRC+, but he ended up becoming a big part of the late-1990s dynasty and a World Series MVP. Not too shabby, huh?
Scott David Brosius
Born: August 15, 1966 (Hillsboro, OR)
Yankees Tenure: 1998-2001
Brosius took an interest in baseball from a very young age. The Oregon native was a First-Team All-Conference in his senior year at Rex Putnam High School, according to the Oregon Encyclopedia. After that, he attended college at Linfield, where he started impressing scouts in the mid-eighties, achieving all-conference status in 1986 and honorable mention All-America in 1987.
The Oakland Athletics took a chance on him with their 510th pick in the 1987 MLB Draft, in the 20th round. No, Brosius evidently wasn’t a hotshot prospect, but fate would have some exciting things in store for him.
After a few years in the minor leagues, Brosius made his MLB debut in 1991 with the A’s. From that year until 1994, he was seen as a glove-first player who could cover multiple positions around the diamond. Over that span of his career, his wRC+ consistently ranged between 80 and 89.
Scott’s breakout campaign would come in 1995. Even though it would be, by far, his worst defensive campaign, he finally offered something as a hitter: a 109 wRC+, 17 home runs, 19 doubles, and 69 runs scored in 123 games and 443 plate appearances.
Oakland also enjoyed Brosius’ best campaign purely by fWAR, 1996, in which he put up 5.8 fWAR, a 131 wRC+, and 22 long balls, all career highs. He hit .304/.393/.516 and started to make a name for himself. Essentially, since he was 29 when he produced this season, you could say he was a late bloomer.
Then 1997 came, and he slumped badly to a 50 wRC+, a .203 batting average, and -0.3 fWAR. You would read headlines such as “Struggling Brosius is atrocious” in Oakland back then.
The Yankees, however, came calling and effectively changed his career by setting up that trade that saw Rogers go to Oakland and Brosius being sent to New York. He was a player to be named later yes, but they thought that he could at least be a good defender at the hot corner to potentially succeed the departing Wade Boggs and Charlie Hayes. In a lineup as loaded as the team he was joining, few minded him hitting ninth. Skipper Joe Torre was certainly willing to give him some credit run come Opening Day with veteran Dale Sveum the only competition.
The 1998 campaign probably felt like a dream for Brosius, who hadn’t experienced postseason baseball by that point. The A’s made it to the 1992 American League Championship Series, but he didn’t play.
In that 1998 season, Brosius was brilliant. He hit .300/.371/.472 and offered a little bit of everything: contact hitting, power, discipline, on-base ability, defense, and a winning aura that led him to become the World Series MVP. He posted his second 5.0-fWAR season, and his wRC+ was a healthy 123. His 98 RBI helped the Yanks a lot, and he added 11 stolen bases for good measure.
In the postseason, Brosius proceeded to hit a lofty .383 with a 166 wRC+ and 15 RBI in 13 games. He was the MVP of the 1998 Fall Classic after hitting .471 with two homers and six RBI in a four-game sweep of the Padres. When San Diego had life late in Game 3 at Qualcomm Stadium and aimed to make it a 2-1 series, Brosius stomped it out with long balls off Padres playoff hero Sterling Hitchcock and Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman, putting New York in the driver’s seat.
The Yankees won a second consecutive World Series in 1999, this time against the Atlanta Braves, despite Brosius having a down regular season with the bat. His wRC+ was 82, and while he hit 17 homers, he failed to replicate his amazing 1998 — though given the circumstances of playing with a heavy heart as his ailing father passed away from cancer, few would blame him.
Brosius did win his first and only Gold Glove that year, though, and homered twice and put up a .930 OPS in the ALCS win over the Yankees’ archrivals, the Boston Red Sox. He had a good case to be crowned the ALCS MVP, but Orlando “El Duque”’ Hernández was a beast.
2000 rolled around, and it brought in another World Series victory for Brosius and the Bombers. The third baseman, however, had his worst season as a Yankee that year, hitting .230/.299/.374 with 16 homers and a 71 wRC+. He did hit one dinger, drove in three runs, and posted a .927 OPS in the Subway Series to help the Bombers secure the three-peat.
The 2001 campaign would be Brosius’ last as a major leaguer, and it almost resulted in four consecutive World Series trophies for him. Unfortunately, the Arizona Diamondbacks had something to say about that and won the Fall Classic 4-3.
During the regular season, Brosius experienced an offensive renaissance. He hit a solid .287/.343/.446 with 13 home runs, 57 runs scored, and a 109 wRC+. The best would come in October and November, though.
No, Brosius didn’t have a particularly good showing in the 2001 postseason. He hit .140 and didn’t work any walks, posting a 1 wRC+. He did, however, hit an incredibly clutch homer that those who lived through the 2001 World Series will hardly forget.
The World Series was tied at two wins apiece, and the Yankees entered the bottom of the ninth inning at old Yankee Stadium down two runs in Game 5. Down to the last out, Brosius hit a two-out, two-run home run off Byung-Hyun Kim that tied the game and set up an exciting extra-innings win. Alas, the Yankees lost both Games 6 and 7.
Brosius, a free agent after the World Series, chose to retire, prioritizing his family. “I’m just ready to be home,” Brosius said to the AP in 2001, according to this ESPN piece. “I can look back with no regrets and know that everything I wanted to do as a baseball player, every dream I had, has been fulfilled, and there’s nothing else for me to chase as a ballplayer.”
It was a short but heartfelt farewell message from a guy who didn’t need the headlines like some of his teammates back then, but always delivered when it mattered the most. Yankees fans remember him fondly as a key cog of one of the most successful periods of the franchise.
After retiring, Brosius became an assistant coach at Linfield College from 2002 to 2007. In 2008, he became the head coach and went on to have a very successful career at the helm with the Wildcats. In late 2015, the Seattle Mariners made him hitting coach in Triple-A Tacoma. He was the M’s assistant coach in 2017 and the third base coach in 2018. Brosius has returned for several Yankees Old-Timers’ Days, including the 25th anniversary celebration of the legendary ‘98 club in 2023.
Brosius, a member of the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and a solid player at the high school, college, and MLB level, was a Yankee for only four years. What a period that was, though.
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