A fourth-round pick from Rutgers in 2000, David DeJesus made it to the bigs in 2003, took over center field in 2004, and immediately finished sixth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting.
During the 2008 campaign, he recorded a career-high .307 batting average with 12 home runs and 73 RBIs while providing steady-state production at the top of the order. He demonstrated a specialized ability to manufacture runs in a cavernous home ballpark, recording 159 hits and a .366 on-base percentage, and from 2007 to 2009 had at least 155 hits per season.
In 2006, he demonstrated a rare, vulnerable quality by leading the American League in hit-by-pitches, a testament to his specialized ability to crowd the plate and reach base by any means necessary. While he never duplicated the hardware potential of his rookie season, he remained a model of offensive consistency, maintaining a .289 career average during his stay in Kansas City.
DeJesus was traded to Oakland in 2010 and, as a Royal, compiled 971 hits, with a .289 average.
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