The last stretch of Roberto Alomar's career is...strange.
Roberto Alomar's WAR total from 1988 until 2001 is 67.3. .3 more than his career total. Which means his WAR from 2002 until his retirement in 2004 was a negative total.
Obviously his 2002-2003 Mets numbers, and their mediocrity, have been reported, but for whatever reason, Alomar was no longer the best 2nd baseman in baseball anymore starting in 2002, and just...had a ton more human material over his last 3 seasons.
At the 2003 trade deadline, Alomar was a high-caliber trade chip for the White Sox to receive, and he was ALRIGHT in his first stint in Chicago, hitting .253 with 17 RBI, but it was a far cry from even his 2001 numbers. So Alomar signed a cheaper deal with Arizona, did what he could for them in 38 games [he hit over .300, though], and was once again traded midyear. This one was a little later than the Topps trade cutoff, but it was to the same team- the Chicago White Sox.
Alomar's final career numbers in the last half of 2004 are not indicative of his storied, Hall of Fame career. In 18 games with the Sox, he bat .180, with 11 hits, 8 RBIs, a home run, and a -0.8 WAR. Willie Harris remained the primary option at 2nd in this period, if you want an accurate idea of how far Alomar fell by this point.
The rest is card-blog folklore. He signs a minor league deal with the Rays, he doesn't make the team and retires, and Topps releases a card of him in 2005 Series 2 despite never playing a game with the Rays. I recently came into contact with this card, and it is now a crucial part of my HOF binder.
But despite the lack of...want for a 2004 Alomar Sox card from Topps, I made one anyway because it felt right. It may not have been the best way to send off a legend, but it certainly feels better than pretending it didn't exist.
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