Kenny Lofton Net Worth

Kenny Lofton Salary Detail

The Atlanta Braves’ Marquis Grissom and slugger David Justice were part of a Braves roster that, heading into the 1997 season, was the MLB’s highest-paid. Grissom ($4.8 million annual salary) and Justice ($6 million) were traded to the Indians in return for Lofton ($4.75 million) and Alan Embree ($206,000). “This is a trade of enormous magnitude for two very, very good franchises. We’re talking about franchise-type players”, Hart said. For Lofton, considered “the centerpiece of the Indians’ 1990s revival”, it was a return to the National League. “The trade will be in the back of my mind for a long time, but it’s baseball. It happens to nearly everybody. I’m [in Atlanta] to play every day. It’s all Braves from now on”, Lofton said. By April 19, the Braves were 13–3 and Lofton’s hitting (.453 batting average) had won favor with his new Braves teammates. “If he keeps hitting .400 he’ll fit in just fine”, said Chipper Jones. For the season, Lofton’s .333 batting average and 27 stolen bases were team highs (his stolen-base total was to that point a career low). He was caught stealing 20 times, an MLB high. Atlanta won the NL East division with an MLB-best 101–61 record. The Braves swept the Houston Astros in the 1997 National League Division Series (NLDS), three games to none. In the 1997 National League Championship Series (NLCS), the Braves lost to the Florida Marlins, four games to two (the Marlins later defeated the Cleveland Indians in the World Series). For the NLCS, Lofton batted .185 and was one of three Braves’ hitters who recorded seven strikeouts in the series. For Lofton, who was eligible for free agency at the end of the season, it was his only season with the Braves.

On September 3, 2000, in a 12–11 win over the Baltimore Orioles, Lofton tied an MLB record previously held by Red Rolfe when he scored in 18 consecutive games. He tied an Indians’ franchise single-game record with five stolen bases and won the game with a 13th-inning walk-off home run. He finished the 2000 season batting .278, recording 30 stolen bases and 107 runs (the sixth time crossing home plate 100 times or more in nine seasons). The Indians finished the regular season 90–72 and one game out of the wild card. After missing the postseason in 2000, the Indians returned in 2001 after winning the AL Central with a 91–71 regular-season record. Before winning the division, however, Lofton scored the game-winning run during an August 5 game against the Seattle Mariners; the Indians were down by 12 runs, and became just the third team in MLB history to overcome such a deficit, winning 15–14 in 11 innings. Indians catcher Eddie Taubensee, who was involved in the trade which sent Lofton from Houston to Cleveland at the beginning of his MLB career, caught Lofton after he slid into home plate and jumped with excitement after discovering he had just scored the game-winning run. “I caught him and wasn’t going to let him go”, Taubensee said. Cleveland won that game against Seattle, but lost their match-up with the 116-win Mariners in the 2001 ALDS. He hit 66 RBIs on the regular season (second-most in his career), but failed to record 20 stolen bases for the first time in his major-league career and batted a career-low .261. Lofton had been treated for a rib cage problem that had affected his play before the All-Star break. His second stint with Cleveland lasted through 2001, in which his salary was for $8 million in his final contract year with the club. He became a free agent at the conclusion of the season.

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