The Rockies are shuffling their outfield alignment for the upcoming season, writes Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. They’ll utilize Ian Desmond as their primary center fielder, with Charlie Blackmon and David Dahl lining up in corners. (Saunders further tweets that Blackmon will play right field, with Dahl playing left.) It’ll be the third position for Desmond with the Rockies in the third season of his five-year, $70MM contract. Desmond was primarily a left fielder with the Rox in 2017 and was the team’s regular first baseman last year, though offseason signee Daniel Murphy will handle first base moving forward.
Desmond, 33, does have some experience in center field, which was his primary position with the Rangers back in 2016. However, he drew mixed reviews there at the time (-6 Defensive Runs Saved, -0.5 Ultimate Zone Rating and +3 Outs Above Average) and will be tasked with a challenging draw in covering Coors Field’s spacious center field.
The shift will move Blackmon, who hasn’t played any corner outfield since 2015 (when he played fewer than 100 innings, combined, in right and left field), in an effort to gain more favorable results. Blackmon’s defensive ratings plummeted in 2018, and his bat, while still well above average, took a step back as well. That, and perhaps a desire to keep Blackmon’s legs a bit fresher, quite likely played a role in the new alignment, though manager Bud Black also called center field Desmond’s “best position” at this point. For a 33-year-old that has logged just 27 innings at the position over the past two seasons, that seems like a stretch, but Desmond will once again be tasked with tackling an unfamiliar position as the Rox look to extract some value from a signing that has yet to pay dividends.
The first two seasons of Desmond’s five-year contract have gone about as poorly as the Rockies could have plausibly envisioned at the time they signed him. The two-time All-Star (2012 with the Nats and 2016 with the Rangers) has managed just a .251/.314/.404 batting line (78 OPS+) while struggling through a broken hand and a calf strain in an injury-shortened 2017 season. While his bat trended up a bit this past season, he was still a far cry from his offensive peak. Paired with some rough glovework at first base, those struggles prompted both Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference to tab Desmond’s value south of replacement level. Desmond is slated to earn $15MM in each of the next two seasons and will be paid $8MM in 2021 (plus a $2MM buyout on a $10MM option for the 2022 season).
What could go wrong?
Hahahaha right ?
No, center
**fist bump emoji**
Good luck with that!
Have to get that bad glove a mediocre bat in the lineup no matter what right?
Have to get an useless comment in here no matter what, right?
My bad, I thought you were the other X
So did I honestly XD
I thought it was a bad signing at the time, but no one could have seen it go this badly. That said, Desmond probably plays CF better than Blackmon.
He’s offense has been bad in Colorado. How did his bat get worse in Colorado after decent production in DC?
Got older. Also I think once they moved him from his natural position at SS his adjustments at the plate went with it. Sometimes moving positions can do something mentally to players. He’s also been in the league 9 going on 10 years. His productive years couple very well he behind him.
He’s still hitting on the ball hard, but he’s an extreme ground ball hitter
His offense in Washington really trailed off in those last years.
OPS from 2012 on, .845, .784, .743, .674. From decent to putrid. Strikeouts soared too, even while having nearly 600 ABs. His last year here he was awful. He would swing at everything so hard it looked like he was coming out of his shoes. His defense took a huge hit too.
Unbelievably, he declined a 7 year/$105MM offer from the Nats. It was a huge bullet that they dodged there.
Didn’t he play center field with the Rangers? Was he any good in center?
It gives you your answer in the article
Yep, I saw that. Got ahead of myself.
No, he had the wheels to play the position but lacked instincts. Took poor angles and reacted late. His bat was worth it at the time though.
Dahl a product of Coors (just like Arenado). Check the home/away splits. And Dahl also can’t hit lefties.
Dahl
(home): .326/.364/.688
(away): .200/.274/.324
vs. LH: .234/.258/.438
Agree, the splits are crazy. Arenado will sign an extension this season and not risk free agency.
arenado in the postseason was one of the worst things i’ve seen, same with all the rockies players.
Yeah because 5 career postseason games and 21 AB is such a huge sample size.
Ok get what your saying but you know one thing people dont take into consideration is the pitchers that he plays against too in his division at the same time too. They arent nothing to sneeze about. Now I’m not complaining or ripping on your post at all just stating on another factor into the splits is all
You’re talking about sample sizes of 154 and 117 plate appearances. That’s way too small to draw any conclusions from.
Plus 3 of the 4 road parks in the NL West,are pitcher’s parks.
Hey genius why don’t you show the splits of other players like Aaron Judge. It’s a well know fact most players hit better at home. Funny how splits are only used on Rockies players.
Does the article mention Judge? Take a hike
The article is about Desmond playing center field so I guess you can take a hike.
dahl is mentioned you dolt
Hey don’t you mentioned Arenado! You don’t have a clue.
because he’s a teammate and corollary for my argument you simple simon moron
You have S.h.i t for brains
billions of swimmers and you were the best your daddy had to offer? LMAO what a trash family. darwin awards all around
Sucks for you to be wrong doesn’t it?
Most baseball fans only focus on Rockies hitters and how they perform away from Coors Field, Most of the time they don’t pay attention to how other players on other teams perform on the road.
Most people didn’t even pay attention to Manny Machado career splits despite playing his home games at Camden Yards. His career away stats are very similar to Arenado’s.
Now who plays first? I see a trade for Justin Smoak in the near future.
Daniel Murphy is playing first base for the Rockies this year. Just added a note to the post reflecting that.
FYI, Murphy is misspelled
Thanks Steve, forgot about Murphy.
When discussing the move to CF Desmond said among other things, “ We’ll see what happens…I know I’ve got a handful in front of me.”
LOL.
Interesting, I’d have thought they’d given Tapia a chance to prove himself in spring before making this decision.
Is this déjà vu? IIRC when they originally signed him wasn’t this something they were considering?
Teams that treat defense like it’s not important, are teams that usually fail in the end.
To be fair, every team but one fails in the end.
My point of fail was not making the playoffs.
The Nat’s sure dodged a bullet when Desi balked at long term contract.
Would you rather have: Ian Desmond + contract
Or Wil Myers + contract
As I Giants fan, would be thrilled with Wil Myers in left field for us.
You gave me an interesting idea. A team like the Giants that has deep pockets, but needs to massively rebuild could just trade for all the Wil Myers’ of the world (mediocre players on good player contracts). They would have to give up very little to do it. If they play well, they could flip them at the trade deadline, eating as much money as possible to bring back a good prospect. If they don’t, then they have a relatively decent veteran to keep butts in the seat.
They both have trouble staying healthy, but I really don’t think it is very close. Myers is a lot younger, actually plays a decent left field, and when healthy, is a very dangerous bat with wheels. Neither club would do it again with either player if they had a time machine, but if you are asking who will provide more value per dollar spent over the remaining contracts, I think that Myers is way ahead.
Kudoes to Dan O’Dowd (ex-Rockie GM, current MLB-TV-er) for being right on point when they signed Desmond. DOD posited that the “Coors effect” would affect Desmond’s offensive approach negatively, since it almost requires a different approach. And the 1B idea was just dumb from the get-go; why waster a solid defensive player at 1B.
To me, some teams (O’s, Tigers, Rays) would have been perfect landing spots for Desmond this off season. Get the Rox to eat some of the coin (or do a bad contract swap), pick up some pieces from a pretty good farm system; it gives value to a guy who’s basically under-produced.
Desmond can play CF; he can play just about anywhere, and with skill. He’s the perfect example of a guy whose not as bad as his squiggly numbers indicate. Not saying he’s GOOD; just that he can be a reasonably good bounce back candidate.
As I was scrolling down, I saw “Rockies Plan To Move Ian Desmond” and my heart leaped for joy at the impending trade.
Then I scrolled a bit more and saw “To Center Field”, and the dejection set in heavily.
are they just giving up on Raimel Tapia? I always thought he would be solid if giving consistent at bats
Could a platoon possible be in the works for them. Would keep Tapia sheilded from facing lefties.
They just need to accept that those payroll dollars being committed to Ian Desmond are a sunk cost. Allowing him to soak up the salary AND hurt the team with his performance creates two problems where there only needs to be one.
Honestly, the time to strike was last year, at the trade deadline. A better bat at 1B may have helped when everybody else ran out of gas in the playoffs.
Tapia continues rotting on the vine. Idiots!
Man, other than the Dodgers, the NL West is looking very weak.
This is where he should have been in the first place when they signed him. Most of his value comes from defensive versatility, so forcing him in at 1B was always idiotic.
They could have played him all over the place like Zobrist and still gotten him 500 PA’s.
Shouldn’t be starting. Hasn’t proven he can hit well enough. Great versatility so he should be kept on the roster, but in a Brock Holt/Enrique Hernandez type role with no set position.
Thomas Harding, Rockies mlb.com journalist, reported this months ago. At the time, he also said Tapia was going to have a chance to platoon, but he’d have to earn the playing time by playing well.
Beating out Desi should be a cake walk for crazy legs Raimel.
That contract continues to defy belief. Why on earth did the Rockies FO think it was a good idea?