As you will recall, my goal is to accrue 3.0+ WAR at each position.
Catcher:
My catchers were healthy all season, remarkable at such a demanding position, especially for their advanced ages. Between them, they put up 5.5 WAR, an increase of 1.9 over last season.
Calvin Johnson, age 37, had a career year. He hit .266/.308/.450 (112 OPS+) , hit 32 doubles and 15 HR, started 119 games, and earned 4.7 WAR. On defense, he had only 1 PB, threw out 31% (2nd in the JL), posted a league-leading +3.5 ZR, and was second in the league in framing runs at +19.3. After this season, we hold two team options at $14.1 and $14.6 million. We’ll certainly be exercising that first option.
Juan Villa, age 33, caught the other 54 games. His batting line was .223/.279/.271 (58 OPS+). He earned 0.8 WAR with his strong defense, including +7.6 framing runs. Given his paltry offense, I’ll look around to see if there is a better backup C option. Framing is very important to us. Villa is not yet arbitration eligible.
First Base:
Total WAR at this position was +4.0, an increase of 0.6 over last season.
Lineu Aldo, age 38, started 136 games at first base. He hit .313/.347/.474 (131 OPS+) with 48 stolen bases, 34 doubles, and 15 HRs. His age has not affected his offense very much, but it’s had a big impact on his defense. Last season, the former Gold Glover moved from 2B to 1B, and this season his ZR at first base dipped in negative territory at -2.1. He’s got one year left on his contract, at $18.6 million, with two team options for the same price after that.
Second Base:
This was our strongest position, with its 6.3 WAR improving by 1.0 WAR over last season.
Miguel 'Thrillseeker' Martínez, age 27, earned his first trip to the All-Star game, hitting .238/.317/485 (124 OPS+) with 40 HR. Starting 140 games, he led the league in ZR (+13.3) and defensive efficiency at his position. Miggy is still arbitration eligible, currently earning $4 million.
The other 22 games were started by super infield sub Aniruddha Meenakshisundaram, hereafter referred to as simply “Rudy.” The 32-year-old started 64 games around the infield for us, with a batting line of .293/.343/.401 (112 OPS+) and 1.6 WAR, of which 0.5 of that was at second base. His ZR at second base was +2.3. Rudy has been extended on a 1+1 deal (team option for year 2).
Third Base:
Production here decreased slightly from last year’s 6.6 WAR to 5.7 WAR this season, but like catcher, we needed only two players to man the hot corner.
Another year, another fine season by the timeless and Durable Eduardo González, age 37, who turned in a slash line of .298/.352/.527 (146 OPS+) in 141 starts, with 41 doubles and 29 HR, good for 5.2 WAR. He is signed for two more seasons at $12.6 million each, with two team options after that.
Rudy started the other 21 games, contributing another 0.5 WAR at the position.
Shortstop:
This position saw the biggest gain, year over year, of any of our positions. Its total WAR of 5.7 was 2.5 better than the previous season. Here again, just two players saw time at shortstop.
Qutuz Mahdi enjoyed his first full season in a Blazers uniform, starting 141 games, with a career high 112 OPS+ from hitting .267/.359/.380, including 23 doubles. Combined with his Gold Glove defense, this was good for 5.2 WAR. Among shortstops, he led the league in ZR (+20.8), WAR, walks (65), and was second in OPS+ and third in wOBA (.323). He is signed for two more seasons at $10 and $9.75 million.
Rudy started the other 21 games, contributing another 0.5 WAR at the position.
Left Field:
This was identified as a position of concern after last season. We signed António López during the offseason. Unfortunately, production here actually decreased, largely due to multiple trips to the IL by Lopez, going from 2.2 WAR down to 2.0 WAR.
When Lopez was on the field, we were good. He hit .306/.346/.413 (116 OPS+) in his 94 starts, with a +2.4 ZR, good for 2.1 WAR. Originally signed to platoon against RHP, he ended up playing full time because everyone else was awful. His line against RHP was .321/359/.431 (125 OPS+). He separated his shoulder on August 25, missing the remainder of the season. Without Lopez in the leadoff spot, the Blazers went 13-16 (.448) down the stretch, surrendering the division lead. Prior to that, Montreal had a 79-54 record (.594). He is arbitration eligible, currently earning $2.5 million.
A parade of players attempted to replace him, contributing negative 0.1 WAR for their efforts.
Center Field:
We knew we were going to miss Bill Morley but did we ever! We ran six different players out there, and they managed to accumulate a total of 0.9 WAR. This was a decrease of 2.8 WAR.
The left-handed-hitting John Oliver, age 33, started 115 games in his platoon role, hitting .222/.275/.434 (98 OPS+) with 22 HR. Together with his -2.0 ZR, this was good for 0.9 WAR. We hold team options on Oliver for the next seasons at $1.48 and $1.88 million.
Right-handed José 'Heartthrob' Leyva, age 39, was supposed to be Oliver’s platoon partner, but on those rare days when he wasn’t hurt, he did not produce. Against LHP in 104 PA, Leyva hit .196/.269/.239 (47 OPS+). He did manage decent defense (+0.9 ZR), but the net result was zero WAR. Leyva is under contract for one more season at $1.6 million.
Right Field:
If you thought center field was bad, right field was worse. It was a train wreck. We got zero WAR from right field, 2.4 less than last season’s poor total.
The primary culprit is Pedro Huerta, age 38. He is certainly the worst free agent signing of the Breum era in Montreal. If you look at his ratings and his recent history before the signing, he fit our desired prototype player almost to a tee. Good contact, elite gap power, strong HR power, and blazing speed. His defense was adequate in right field, but I envisioned him in the DH role eventually. In the two seasons prior to joining the Blazers, Huerta hit 30 HRs each year and posted ~140 OPS+.
With his ratings essentially unchanged since the signing, Huerta has put up seasons of 80, 110, and 95 OPS+, with WAR of -0.3, 1.6, and 0.4. His baserunning has been the only bright spot. He is signed for one more season at $15 million.
James 'Jimmie Jack' Belinda, age 27, was supposed to be Huerta’s platoon partner. He managed .212/.294/.305 (72 OPS+) in 151 PA versus LHP and combined that with subpar defense. He is not yet arbitration eligible.
Designated Hitter:
This was another disaster, declining to 0.7 WAR from last season’s disappointing 2.2 WAR.
LH Aarnoud Budding was supposed to platoon here with the RH Mike LeBlanc. In over 200 PAs, Budding managed a .234/.290/.458 line (108 OPS+) for zero WAR, before we traded him to Las Vegas, where he rebounded with a .260/.341/.549 (135 OPS+) 1.7 WAR performance.
LeBlanc hit .289/.329/441 (117 OPS+) for 0.6 WAR. He is signed for two more years at $1 million each.
Late season addition Leonardo Rodríguez put up 0.8 WAR from the left side. He is a Rule 5 pick earning the major league minimum.
Summary:
I haven’t crunched the numbers, but I suspect that our infield + catcher WAR led the BBA with 27.2 WAR. Equally likely is that our outfield + DH WAR of 3.6 had to be near the bottom of the league. Overall, we declined 1.8 WAR from our 100 win season, from 32.5 to 30.7. Our runs scored declined from 843 to 764, a 9.3% decrease. Our runs allowed also decreased, from 729 to 655, a 10.2% decline. Net runs changed from 114 to 109, a 4.3% decrease. For each season, our Pythagorean record was projected to 92 wins.
Performance Improvement Plan:
This has to be to pretty obvious, right? Blow up the outfield and the DH position and bring back the rest. Of course, it’s not that easy.
Outfield defense is a big part of our master plan for success in Montreal. Unfortunately, executing against the plan is much more difficult. Elite center fielders are scarce and correspondingly expensive. Corner outfielders are a dime a dozen, but strong outfield defense is not a common trait among them. To date, we have had to content ourselves with stopgap measures in both left and center field. I thought we had the solution in right field, but Huerta has been a bust and represents $15 million of dead money.
Designated hitter should be an easy position to fill, right? Like Huerta, Budding never met my expectations. I am leery of committing a significant sum to the DH position.
Last season, I said we needed a LF, hoped for improvement by our existing players at RF and DH, and planned to run out a modest platoon in CF that would at least provide good defense. I filled the LF job, although injuries caused me to miss the goal. Instead of improvement at RF and DH, we saw both positions flat-line and CF to disappoint.
- Concern: Backup catcher hit poorly.
Plan: Upgrade with better hitter who can frame well
- Concern: LF fell short of goal by 1.0 WAR
Plan: Hope for healthy season from António López (Normal injury proneness) and find him a platoon partner.
- Concern: CF fell short of goal by 2.1 WAR
Plan: Upgrade at CF
- Concern RF fell short of goal by 3.0 WAR
Plan: Upgrade at RF
- Concern: DH fell short of goal by 2.3 WAR
Plan: Hope that LH Leonardo Rodríguez can blossom in a platoon role and/or find an upgrade.
