FORT MYERS, Fla. — Jose Iglesias is a middle man. He is the middle of the diamond at shortstop and in the middle of nowhere in the Red Sox’ plans.
He is not the Red Sox Shortstop of the Present. That is Stephen Drew, signed to a one-year, $9.5 million deal. He is no longer the Red Sox Shortstop of the Future. That’s uberprospect Xander Bogaerts.
Comments
I can't speak for the Ben Cherington regime, but (as a former team statistical consultant) under Theo the notion that the Sox were "obsessed" with offensive shortstops is just silly. You evaluate a player's hitting, you evaluate his fielding, and you figure out how good he is. You try to obtain and play the best possible players.
OPS projections for Drew average about 735. He probably projects to be a tiny bit below average defensively (-2 runs per 150 games), although there's hope he can be a bit above average (+2, maybe).
Iglesias' OPS projections are all around 600. That's about 30 runs of offense worse than Drew, over 150 games, for a #9 hitter. He's probably a +15 defender, so he doesn't come close to making up the offensive downgrade.
The rule of thumb is that 4 OPS points equal a run, so if Iglesias is (being generous) 20 runs better than Drew with the glove, he need to have about a 650 OPS to be a better option (he's probably a better baserunner, too). That actually seems doable, right now.
That the Sox signed Drew indicated that they felt that Iglesias could benefit from more AAA time, and that they thought they could contend. But if Iglesias' power surge is for real, and come late May it seems that he's the better overall player, Drew's salary is not going to be an impediment to Iglesias getting the job. I'd like to see that happen, too. But there's no question that signing Drew was a good move; it would have been unwise to count on Iglesias adding power.
You seem to know what you're talking about when it comes to stats but it's just projections. They may prove to be true but they're just educated guesses, nothing personal. Given that this is a rebuilding year, I would be in favor of giving Isglesias an extended opportunity to prove himself at the major league level.
Even with Boegarts waiting in the wings, were Islgesias to prove himself a decent hitter he'd become a valuable trading chip. If he doesn't, he's not likely to be judged any worse by another team. If the Sox don't believe in him then why should anyone else? Now's the time to give him a shot.
Pretty fair assessment. I agree. Iglesias had done nothing to make the team feel confidant in handing him the job. What some can't accept is that there might be a way to compete WHILE rebuilding. I've always felt 2004 was meant to be a rebuild year too. But one in which the team could still compete. And compete they certainly did. No one can argue against THAT. I like the fact that there is some competition for jobs...and some are responding...like Iglesias.
This article is just wrong on so many levels. It is not an enfatuation with offense that keeps a guy who has yet to demonstrate the ability to hit even AAA pitching from playing regularly in the majors. A guy who makes outs 75% of the time can't possibly save enough runs on defense to be a net positive over the course of a season. He could be the best fielding SS in the history of baseball, but if he can't hit 200 in MLB, AND he doesn't walk AND he has no power, he better be able to field 2 infleid positions simultaneously so the Sox could use 4 outfielders in order not to be a net loss even if the SS that plays is even MLB average offensively and defensively.
I guess being outrageously stupid gets eyeballs or something, but this column is terrible. Just awful. It's not indicative of an obession with offense to conclude that Iglesias is not ready for prime-time. The guy has 1. not been able to stay healthy and 2. not been able to hit a lick. He had a really terrible season last year, and has never been very effective. At this point, he might be the new Rey Ordonez, if he's lucky. He might not even be the new Ray Oyler.
The Red Sox have made some wrong moves in the recent past (Valentine?!), but bringing in a short-stop to hold the fort instead of throwing Iglesias out there is not one of them. I'm glad he has a few hits in the first two weeks of spring training, but let's see a little more first before handing him the keys to the car.
May never come to pass but if Iglesias can hit just alittle him at SS Boegarts at 3rd and when Ortiz gets hurt again move Middlebrooks to 1st.
Unfortunately, Iglesias did nothing last season in his time in the majors to inspire any confidence that he could hit at all. As good as his defense is, if he is hitting under .200, then he is not a major league starter.
It's nice that he appears to be hitting better this spring, but the Sox could not afford to just stand still in regard to the shortstop position.
Besides, it's only spring training.
It's a long season and if Drew gets hurt, Iglesias will get his chance if he shows that his 'improvement' is for real.