As Valencia is mired in a 10 game skid, the Gas monitors have turned their focus on to the various aspects of the rebuild and how some of the pieces are progressing.
One of the focal points of the rebuild was totally gutting the middle infield since that was where a large piece of the trade capital was and the salaries were increasing for the trio of Carlos Schumann, Miller Shed and Tyler Conklin. Their combined salaries are roughly $11.1M this season and expected to be $15.1M in 2064. The combined WAR of the trio is expected to be around 5.0 so they are proving that it is money well spent.
Enter in the new trio of middle infielders including Jesus Romero, Shu de Sa and Sumiteru Okubo. The new trio have a combined salary of $1.5M both this year and next saving the Valencia budget $23.2M over the next two years. At this point the projected WAR for this trio is coming in at about 4.0. However, the majority of this production is coming from Jesus Romero.
After being acquired in part of a trade from Nashville for minor leaguers Toby Fast and Cole Stevens, Jesus' 2062 was less than ideal hitting .192/.247. The story so far in 2063 has been different to this point. Playing in 56 games Jesus has been hitting at a ,293/.335 clip Jesus' defense is always a plus with his range rating of 9 and an 8 rating at shortstop/10 rating at second base.
Time will tell if the trend aligns with Jesus' production to date this season, reverts back to last year's numbers or somewhere in between.