When Your Landlord Makes the Lead-Off: A Look Inside the Cliquey World of Baseball Real Estate

Shortly after working his way out of free agent purgatory and signing a new contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kiké Hernández asked his wife Mariana to explore another market. She contacted Dodger Rich Hill’s former wife, Caitlin, with a request: Could the Hernándezes live in the Hills’ home again?

The Hills had purchased the property, located in the Toluca Lake neighborhood, in 2017, shortly after Rich signed a $48 million contract. The family decided not to sell it after Hill’s final season with the team in 2019. The house has since become a popular destination among Dodgers personnel. Catcher Austin Barnes lived there for one season. Manager Dave Roberts has inquired about its availability. When Hernández rejoined the team at the trade deadline last year, he moved into the home, which is just a 20-minute drive from Dodger Stadium with access to three different highways.

“It’s very attractive because of the location,” Hill said.

But that’s not the only selling point; Almost as important is that the homeowner understands the nomadic baseball lifestyle of his tenants.

When looking for a place to live, players often rely on each other’s recommendations, connections and familiarity with baseball’s unique schedule and travel. That has led to a different kind of market each winter, in which ballplayers buy, sell and trade homes among themselves – swapping houses, directing young players to the right places and passing on certain key properties as the cycle repeats.

It is not unusual for players to report to spring training without a place to stay before the regular season. Sometimes free agents sign later than expected; sometimes transactions happen without warning. In the final days of February, Toronto Blue Jays infielder Justin Turner was still looking for a rental deal in the Toronto suburbs to sync up with his one-year, $13 million contract. Caleb Ferguson, a New York Yankees reliever acquired in early February, was looking for a place on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with a park nearby for his newborn son. Surprised by a trade from the Miami Marlins on Feb. 11, Minnesota Twins reliever Steven Okert said he had “no idea” where he would live in the Twin Cities. “I’ve never been there,” Okert said.

The main problem is the length of the lease. The regular season lasts approximately six months. Renting a house often requires a longer commitment. “It’s always tough,” Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu said. He described the process of finding housing as “during my time in professional baseball, one of the hardest things to do,” which is why his wife Jordan is handling it. Spouses often bear the burden: Yency Almonte, the reliever traded from the Dodgers to the Chicago Cubs in January, will live this summer in the Chicagoland home of Joe Kelly, the reliever traded last year from the Chicago White Sox to the Dodgers summer; their wives brokered the deal.

During the off-season, LeMahieu lives in the Michigan suburb of Birmingham, Michigan, where he owns two homes. He has been renting out the second home to various Tigers for almost ten years. So many players have stayed there that LeMahieu has lost track. The first tenant was second baseman Ian Kinsler. The longest-standing resident was pitcher Daniel Norris. “I think they all left the places better than they found them,” LeMahieu said. “I came back and there were new things. Super clean. I thought, ‘Wow, this turned out really well.’”

In 2022, his final year in Milwaukee, reliever Brent Suter was living in a house once occupied by former Brewers teammate Corey Knebel. Suter rented a townhouse through VRBO for his 2023 season with the Colorado Rockies. When he signed with his hometown team, the Cincinnati Reds, through 2024, Suter didn’t have to look for a home. But he had the baseball player network to thank for that.

A few years earlier, while pitching for Cincinnati, Wade Miley bought a four-bedroom house in nearby Anderson Township, Ohio. An older couple started building on a lot across the street. Miley eventually discovered that his new neighbors were Suter’s in-laws. He called his former teammate. “When I’m done with the Reds, I’ll sell you this house,” Miley told Suter. Suter laughed at the offer. When Cincinnati placed Miley on waivers after the 2021 season, Suter received another text: “Go check out the house. We will open the garage for you.” Miley, Suter explained, “connected us to our dream home for life.”

During his time with the Cleveland Guardians, first baseman Carlos Santana lived in Bratenahl, Ohio, an affluent suburb on the shores of Lake Erie. After Santana signed a three-year, $60 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies heading into 2018, he rented his home to former teammate Edwin Encarnación. Santana didn’t last long in Philadelphia. The Phillies shipped him to the Seattle Mariners in December 2018. Less than two weeks later, the Mariners traded Santana to Cleveland – in exchange for Encarnación. Santana moved back to his old house.

Edwin Encarnación and Carlos Santana were Cleveland teammates in 2017. Then things got more complicated. (Duane Burleson/Getty Images)

Don’t feel totally sorry for these athletes, who play in a league where the minimum salary in the major leagues is $740,000. Teams provide them with resources, recommendations and brokers. Their own agents often do the same. The collective labor agreement contains provisions that compensate them for their living costs if cuts are made or traded.

Their privilege still brings complications, and not every casual exchange ends happily. In the summer of 2005, the Boston Red Sox acquired an infielder named Alex Cora from Cleveland in exchange for fellow infielder Ramón Vázquez. The two Puerto Ricans were friends. They agreed to trade houses. “The price was the same,” Cora said. He lived in a four-bedroom, two-story house with a garden. He was stunned when he moved into Vázquez’s apartment near Faneuil Hall. “It was a one-bedroom matchbox,” Cora said.

The dollar is stretching further away from the coasts. Ferguson, the Yankees reliever, grew up about 20 minutes outside Columbus, Ohio, home of Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate. He dreams of renting his house there to one of the Clippers. He joked about his willingness to pay utilities for potential tenants as long as they paid his mortgage. “I don’t want to make any money from you, I just don’t want to lose it,” Ferguson said.

Rich Hill came into his role as the Dodgers’ landlord. During the 2021 season, Hill learned that Barnes commuted about two hours each way to the ballpark. Barnes and his wife Nicole had a newborn son. The driving was exhausting. Hill said his Toluca Lake home was empty. “It’s a very nice house,” Barnes said. “He just let us live there.”

Barnes was luckier than Roberts, who found the house occupied when he asked Hill if he wanted to rent it. Hernández suffered the same fate after signing his new contract with the Dodgers. Hill already rented it to a family before 2024. It turns out that non-ball players need homes, too.

“As much as I want to rent it to the guys,” Hill said, “I can’t kick out the people who are there now.”

(The Athletics‘s Fabian Ardaya, Chad Jennings, Zack Meisel, C. Trent Rosecrans and Sahadev Sharma contributed to this report.)

(Illustration by Dan Goldfarb / The Athletics; Photo by Kiké Hernández: Michael Zagaris / Oakland Athletics / Getty Images; Photo by Rich Hill: Will Newton / Getty Images; Photo of Wade Miley: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire)