Note: the statistics in this article are only partially up to date. Slash lines include Tuesday’s Yankees/Mets game, however fWAR and Steamer projections were not updated by press time, and therefore are indicative of their status after Mondays’ game.
I’ve tried to contain myself for as long as possible. Ever since Spring Training, I’ve been telling myself “It’s too soon. Small sample sizes.”
And so, week after week, I’ve waited. I’ve bided my time. I’ve let the baseball gods do their work, waiting for him to become his normal self.
And it hasn’t happened. The BABIP (batting average on balls in play) is still a bit high, but not obscenely so. He’s posted somewhat similar marks at certain stops in the minors. It will probably normalize somewhat down the line. However, the events of this season cannot be ignored.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s time to start talking about Yangervis Solarte.
At the moment, Solarte isn’t an MVP candidate. Nor does he need to be. But at the moment (Tuesday night, prior to the end of the night’s game) he’s a top 20 player in the AL according to fWAR, with a 1.0 mark. Hardly groundbreaking. But if he maintains his current pace (IF, mind you), he’ll be worth around four wins. That’s pretty freaking good for a non-roster invitee making his big league debut at 26. Solarte wasn’t even supposed to be more than a utility infielder, but he worked his way into an everyday job.
Now I should mention that both the Steamer and ZiPS projection systems aren’t very kind to him going forward. He currently owns a .336/.412/.500 line, but Steamer has him ending the year at .273/.318/.389 and 1.2 fWAR. Yet is it really feasible that he only produces .2 more fWAR over the course of the season?
I doubt it. Solarte is the starting third baseman for the Yankees. There’s no prospect banging on the door, and Kelley Johnson isn’t going to wrest the job away from him. The gig is Solarte’s, barring a trade for Chase Headley as the trade deadline approaches. Yet, Headley’s only posted .4 fWAR so far. So despite Brian Cashman’s penchant for flashy names, even he may be able what’s plainly obvious.
However, someone who may not posses such insight is the manager of the Yankees, Joe Girardi. Solarte has done nothing but hit, yet rather than putting him at the top of the order behind either Brett Gardner or Jacoby Ellsbury, Girardi has relegated that duty to Derek Jeter. Jeter boasts a slash line of .260/.341/.317, a far cry from Solarte’s output. Jeter also owns a set of 40-year-old legs that won’t help him much trying to set the table. Solarte is also a switch-hitter, which could be useful in trying to stack three or four lefties at the top of the order against a right-handed starter (Gardner/Solarte/Ellsbury/Beltran). Yet because this is The Derek Jeter Show, Girardi refuses to do what is clearly the right move.
Another spot in the order for Solarte could be in the five spot. While that spot is usually reserved for a big bopper, he could fill it nicely. Either Brian McCann or Alfonso Soriano usually occupies that slot, yet neither of them has been particularly useful thus far. McCann has been nothing short of a disaster at the plate to the tune of .230/.271/.373. While yes, the “it’s early” moniker can be draped around McCann’s shoulders as much as Solarte’s, it’s a bit more difficult to dismiss the aging catcher’s performance as an anomaly. McCann was supposed to be one of the primary offensive forces for the Yankees, and instead has become nearly a guaranteed out who occasionally hits the ball out. This is normally where I would compare a player to Adam Dunn, but even before Dunn remembered how to hit for average this season, he always maintained a respectable OBP. McCann isn’t even taking enough walks to justify his continued presence in the heart of the order.
Soriano is much older than McCann, so his .248/.279/.416 isn’t as much of a surprise, except perhaps to those who expected him to maintain to his ridiculous pace from last year. In fact, only Soriano’s OBP is egregiously out of line, as his average and slugging are somewhere near his career norms. If he remembers how to take a walk, he could return to being a useful player. However, he sits at -0.1fWAR for the moment.
Yet because these are Brian McCann ™ and Alfonso Soriano ™, they will have their spots in the lineup no matter how bad their bats get. The same can be said of Carlos Beltran ™ and his .234/.286/.430 prior to Monday night’s injury. They have marketable names and track records, so Girardi’s strategy is to throw them in their usual spots and cross his fingers.
Meanwhile, Solarte will continue to bat sixth or lower in the order, despite being the Yankees’ best bet at the plate. At some point, Girardi needs to realize baseball isn’t entirely about track records and names. Slumps are slumps, and hot hitters are hot hitters. Why waste Solarte’s renaissance, while wasting whatever good Gardner and Ellsbury do at the top of the lineup? Why plug Solarte’s prodigious OBP in front of hitters like Kelly Johnson, Brian Roberts or even Brendan Ryan, when Jeter gets his days off? When Ryan plays in Jeter’s place, will Solarte be placed in the 2 spot, or will Ellsbury and Gardner be stacked together?
Unfortunately, my money’s on the latter. Maybe the reason Girardi was able to make so much happen with so little last season was that he didn’t have enough big names to throw in their customary places, their actual performances be damned. It’s very easy to value offensive output when there’s so little, and your only sure bets are Brett Gardner leading off and Robinson Cano batting third. That’s when you have to really pay attention, and apparently when he pays attention Joe Girardi can work magic.
But apparently a division as close as the AL East doesn’t call for paying attention, not when your roster includes names like Jeter, Beltran, McCann and Soriano. That lineup builds itself, it certainly did before the season starts. And it will continue to build itself that way, regardless of how much the league’s best Cinderella story does to say otherwise.
Yangervis Soalrte is the unsung hero of the Yankees season so far. Were it not for Jose Abreu and Masahiro Tanaka being imported to showcase their talents in the states, he would be the current AL Rookie of the Year. Yet on the River Ave. side of Yankee Stadium, there are huge banners for each of the team’s main stars. Solarte does not have a banner. McCann does. Soriano does. Beltran does. Of course, Jeter does (as he damn well should).
Apparently you need a banner on River Ave. to hit in the upper part of the lineup. While literally nobody should be surprised by this, it’s sad trend if the Yankees hope to contend in the ridiculously contentious AL East. Part of contending, part of winning is realizing when things aren’t working, when a change needs to happen. Solarte is the clear answer to at least one of the problems the Yankees are experiencing as they desperately try to tread water over .500. While the Yankees have scored seven runs in both of their last two games, you can chalk that up to poor Mets pitching serving up lots of long balls. The Mets pitching staff, especially their bullpen, is certainly not indicative of the quality of the AL East, or any potential playoff team.
As long as Joe Girardi refuses to reward Yangervis Solarte for his hard work, and continues to stick with names instead of numbers when building his lineup, the Yankees are in trouble.
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