Email a copy of 'Free Agent Profile: Billy Butler' to a friend
Loading ...
By Steve Adams | at
Email a copy of 'Free Agent Profile: Billy Butler' to a friend
MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com
hide arrows scroll to top
mikecws91
Yikes, 3/30? No thanks.
Jaysfan1994 2
Pretty much, Adam Lind got the Jays a #5 starter/longman and he’s a guy who’s hit .310+ vs RHP the last two seasons.
Butler is also a pretty useless bat vs RHP, at least in 2014. Not too many teams are willing to play someone to put up a .250/.301/.352 line vs RHP as an everyday DH. Especially one that doesn’t run well and makes $10M.
oldoak33
Why not? Teams are playing with Monopoly money, and $10MM AAV is fair if he’s able to come close to his ’13 and ’12 production.
Jack Hillyard
It’s interesting they cite a down year in 2014 as the only weakness. I’m seeing how many double plays he hit into, his defensive liabilities (although overstated in some circles) and he has no speed (clogging the bases). IMHO, he is a one-tool player of five tools.
Encarnacion's Parrot
If you read his weaknesses, Steve touched on all of those.
docmilo5
Double plays and doubles. His doubles have dropped. In his best year he hit 51, that was 2009. Last year he hit 27 and this year 32.
Jaysfan1994 2
Butler posted a .250/.301/.352 line vs RHP in 2014.
Lefty_Orioles_Fan
I am still a fan of Billy Butler.
I am still of the thinking he could be an elite hitter and an average fielder.
I am still hoping the O’s can get him.
The O’s need to do some tweaking and Butler would help that effort.
docmilo5
Buter has lost 185 points in OPS over the last 2 years. It wasn’t a bad 2014.
Steve Adams
He still had a 116 OPS+ / 117 wRC+ in 2013, however. Offense as a whole is down around the league, so strictly going by OPS paints a skewed picture. He was a well-above-average bat in 2013. Down from 2012, certainly, but still quite serviceable.
rct 2
Doesn’t OPS+ take into account offense going down around the league, though? Dude’s gone from 138 to 116 to below league average last year at 95. Considering he’s a DH and the only thing he does is hit, you’d be taking a gamble signing him to anything more than a one year deal for $10-12MM. The Royals turned down 1 year, $12.5MM on him even though he’s a fan favorite. I don’t see others ponying up two more years at a similar AAV for him.
Also of note is that his BABIP didn’t dip big or anything.
Troy Szczepanski
As a Tigers fan, I pray he doesn’t sign with an AL central team. This guy always kills Tiger pitching for some reason!
Rally Weimaraner
Butler, a pure DH coming off the worst offensive season of his career, seems like a prime candidate to sign a 1 year pillow contract.
MarvinBerry
Taggart!
BG921
What’s funny to me is that Butler is basically Freddie Freeman. Freeman is a career .286/.366/.465 hitter compared to Butler at .295/.359/.449 and if you take away his down year last season, they’re essentially the same player on offense. Butler strikes out less than Freeman as well. Freeman has posted negative defensive WAR numbers and he’s already at -4.1 dWAR and his defense last season was an abysmal -2.0 dWAR. So, it’s not like he’s a gold glove winner at 1B compared to Butler… The Braves gave Freeman a ridiculous extension and Butler is basically having to settle for a good, but not great contract. Kinda sheds some light on the issues the Braves are having. They extend a no power, high strikeout 1B with no defense and let the 3rd most valuable OF in the NL (Heyward 6.4 WAR) go in a trade for a one pitch pitcher and a guy who’ll probably never pitch in MLB. Wow.
Charlie Burns
Saying Freddie Freeman has no power is vastly undervaluing his pop since only this year did he not hit over 20 HRs (and even then that was only by 2) so he has some umph. It is not the greatest in the world, but c’mon, it isn’t Elvis Andrus’ numbers there. Also, Jason Heyward’s value in WAR was mostly from defense which, while being great, it is not always enough to offset his inconsistent bat, and injury issues (something that hasn’t affected Freddie Freeman…yet.)