Mike Napoli can’t land a long-term deal despite a solid resume

Mike Napoli has been an integral part of eight playoff teams, three World Series teams and one championship team in 11 big league seasons, providing middle-of-the-order power, steady leadership and a blue-collar work ethic to every club for which he has played.

All of which makes Napoli’s nomadic existence — he has garnered one contract that guaranteed more than one year of work and has spent no more than 2 1/2 years in one place since leaving the Angels after 2010 — somewhat perplexing.

“It is a little bit of a head-scratcher that he hasn’t had a long-term deal,” Oakland reliever Sean Doolittle said of Napoli, the 35-year-old slugger who is back in the American League West after signing — you guessed it — a one-year deal with the Texas Rangers in February.

“Everything I’ve ever heard about him in the clubhouse has been positive, and his track record on the field speaks for itself; his power is something not a lot of guys have. But it hasn’t affected him a whole lot. Everywhere he’s gone, he’s been a very important piece to what they’ve been able to do as a team.”

Napoli’s love for the game hasn’t gone unrequited. The catcher-turned-first baseman has netted $73.6 million in career earnings and is guaranteed $11 million on his current deal, which includes an $8.5-million salary this season and an $11-million team option or $2.5-million buyout for 2018.

But clubs seem to fear commitment when it comes to Napoli, who has signed only one multiyear deal — a two-year, $32-million pact with the Boston Red Sox before 2013 — and has been a free agent after four of the last five seasons.

“I don’t know,” Napoli said, when asked why he has switched teams so often. “I mean, it’s such a business. Teams get a certain amount of money to spend, they try to go different ways, and sometimes it doesn’t fit in. That’s just how it is.”

Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels was also stumped by Napoli’s reputation as a ramblin’ man. He has acquired Napoli three times, in the three-team deal that sent Vernon Wells from Toronto to Anaheim before 2011, in an August 2015 trade with the Red Sox and as a free agent in February.

“I’m good at acquiring him, I’m not good at retaining him,” Daniels said. “I don’t know what that’s about because he’s universally loved everywhere he’s been.”

Injuries and timing have conspired against Napoli’s desire to establish roots.

He had two strong seasons (2011-12) in Texas, batting .275 with a .931 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 54 home runs and 131 runs batted in, and he might have earned 2011 World Series most-valuable-player honors had the Rangers not lost to St. Louis in seven games. Napoli hit .350 with two homers and 10 RBIs.

Texas didn’t match Boston’s three-year, $39-million offer the next December, and the sides parted ways.

But Napoli’s physical revealed a degenerative hip condition known as avascular necrosis, causing the Red Sox to revise their original offer. Napoli signed a one-year, $5-million deal that included $8 million in bonuses for games played and plate appearances.

Napoli made the full $13 million in 2013, hitting .259 with an .842 OPS, 23 homers and 92 RBIs and helping the Red Sox win the World Series. That earned him a two-year, $32-million deal that bumped Boston’s three-year payment to $45 million.

“He had to go out and prove that he was healthy, which he did,” said Brian Grieper, Napoli’s agent.

Napoli had surgery after 2014 to relieve a severe case of obstructive sleep apnea, ending a long battle with sleep deprivation, and he felt rejuvenated in 2015 despite hitting .224 with a .734 OPS, 18 homers and 50 RBIs.

The Red Sox were 14 games back when they traded Napoli to Texas that August. Though Napoli hit .295 with a .908 OPS, five homers and 10 RBIs in 35 games for the division-winning Rangers, Texas made little effort to re-sign him.

Napoli inked a one-year, $7-million deal with Cleveland and hit .239 with an .800 OPS and a career-high 34 homers and 101 RBIs to help the Indians win the AL Central and reach the World Series, where they lost to the Chicago Cubs in seven games after taking a 3-1 series lead.

“You go through a month of depression thinking, ‘What if? Was there something different I could have done?’ ” Napoli said of the World Series heartbreak. “But nothing is gonna stop the drive I have to come back the next year and try to do it all over again.”

The Indians wanted Napoli back on a one-year deal. Napoli wanted two or three years. While the sides haggled, ownership approved a bid for free-agent slugger Edwin Encarnacion, who signed a three-year, $60-million deal Jan. 5.

Minnesota offered Napoli two years, but Napoli opted for one plus an option with Texas.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be on a lot of winning ballclubs, and I definitely saw the chance to do that coming back here,” Napoli said. “If I play well enough to where they have to pick up my option, it will be a multiyear deal.”

Napoli should ease the loss of Ian Desmond, Mitch Moreland and Carlos Beltran, who combined for 51 homers and 175 RBIs on last year’s 95-win team, and his personality should fit well in the clubhouse.

Napoli is loose yet focused, free-spirited yet intense, even-keeled yet exuberant. He plays with a sense of urgency that is balanced by a confidence and calm that helps him thrive under pressure.

“He really solidifies what we feel is an already good offense, that’s the tactical side of it,” Manager Jeff Banister said. “The human side of it is … he’s not just a uniform. He’s a great teammate, a team leader and a guy who, in my short time around him, is relentless in the pursuit of wanting to win a World Series.

“You win games with talent on the field. Championships are won with culture, chemistry, the values your teammates hold themselves to, and that’s where a guy like Mike Napoli has the ability to bring both.”

The Indians clearly benefitted from the Napoli Effect.

“Just because you can’t quantify it, if you don’t value it, you would be so wrong,” Cleveland Manager Terry Francona said. “I mean, it’s there, and it’s real, and it’s meaningful. Just because Nap is not here, it doesn’t mean we feel any less about what he brought to our organization. It helped us, and we all know it.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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