Topps Cards That Should Have Been: 2006 Phil Nevin

 One of the oddest things about the 2000s in baseball is that for a good couple years, Phil Nevin was a thing.

Yeah, remember him?

In a decade where some of the oddest former fringe players would be rewarded at 30, including Steve Finley, Luis Gonzalez, Richie Sexson and Jason Schmidt, Phil Nevin was the one that entered and left quicker than anyone could really register. Did he really just go from a backup infielder into the centerpiece of the post-Gwynn Padres? And where'd he go?

I first knew Phil Nevin from Backyard Baseball 2003. Maybe not the flashiest Padres rep, but he'd hit 108 home runs in 4 seasons with the Padres and despite a shortened 2002 campaign, was still the star of the team. He stayed semi-relevant for the rest of his tenure for the Padres, despite not really coming close to his 5.8 WAR 2001 season [his 2004 season, with a 3.1, wasn't bad though]. By 2005, his number was running out, and he was bopped between teams starting from the trade deadline.

2006, Nevin's final season, would be split between three teams, which means Topps, of course, could only do two of them. He began the season with the Rangers, Topps did that in flagship, where he hit .216 with 9 homers in 46 games. In May, he's traded to the Cubs for Jerry Hairston Jr. 

Nevin's Cubs numbers are the closest to his Padres ones. In 67 games he hit .274 with 12 home runs, 33 RBIs and his first positive WAR since leaving San Diego. It was a mild but exciting return to form for Nevin, and despite mainly backing up Derrek Lee in Chicago, he was doing his best to return to relevancy.

Of course, Lee gets healthy again, Nevin loses playing time, and at the end of August he's traded to the Twins. The spell wore off. Nevin only managed 1 more home run in 16 games in Minneapolis, batting a pathetic .190. He'd start one playoff game for the Twins, but not manage to get any hits at all. It would be his final MLB game. Because Update would print post-season, Nevin's stint in Minnesota would be depicted over his stint in Chicago. 

That Nevin would lose his 2001-era mojo was inevitable. That it would happen so quickly, and with enough attempts at staying hot, is the intriguing part. 

Oddity of his era. And without this card, Topps pretty much had his peak documented correctly.