Reds infielder Derek Dietrich has undergone left shoulder surgery, as Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer was among those to cover on Twitter. Fortunately, the clean-up procedure did not reveal any significant damage.
The expectation is that Dietrich will have a more-or-less unimpeded offseason. If there truly aren’t any real ongoing concerns, then it seems likely the club can make a decision whether to tender Dietrich a contract without worrying much about his health.
That said, it’s hardly clear that the Reds will want to commit to Dietrich for 2020. The 30-year-old had a monster showing in the first two months of the season but fell off badly thereafter. He hasn’t played much at all in the second half and a .187/.328/.462 overall slash line that translates only to a 103 wRC+.
The fact that he has a sub-200 BA and is considered an average hitter baffles me.
That’s the new standards for MLB. Pretty sad, huh?
Because he gets on base at a high clip with walks and HBP. That’s why he’s a more valuable offensive player than, say, Billy Hamilton (though Hamilton does things well if he happens to get on base, which doesn’t happen as often as Dietrich does).
The two most valuable things a hitter can do, on his own, are avoid making outs (OBP) and put the ball in play with power (SLG).
Dietrich does both better than the average player. Average OBP for major leaguers is around .320; he’s at .328. Average SLG for major leaguers is around .410. He’s at .468.
It’s not that complicated, but it requires accepting more than one way to evaluate a player.
I’m sure the Reds would be delighted if Dietrich would hit for a higher average AND walk as much as he does. But there’s a reason they kept him and let Billy Hamilton (career .297 OBP/.326 SLG) go.
Lecture over.
Glad it’s over because you are talking about justifying the existence of yet another substandard player with a bottom feeder team by comparing him to another substandard player on a bottom feeder team.
DD needs to find a new home. This team have zero needs for yet another 2B/OF who hits sub .200 regardless of his power and HBP’s.
Thanks for the research. I think I might have more to do with what they had to pay the player. When you look at DD v BH you’ll notice that DD scored every 7.46 plate appearances. BH scored every 7.53 plate appearances. I would argue that scoring is more important than getting on base or power hitting. Getting a hit batter, double or triple doesn’t help if you are left stranded at the end of the inning. What billy brings that DD doesn’t is amazing defense and speed on the bases. What DD brings is the ability to drive in runs with his power. But, mostly what DD brought to the reds was a way lower salary. If you paid both players equally, I’m not sure which one the Reds would have taken.
Runs scored is a horrendous way to judge a players value. Jonathan Villar scored more runs than Mike Trout this year.
But it took him an additional 110 plate appearances to score that one extra run. Look at runs scored per plate appearance,not just runs scored.
watch Pittsburgh sign him after the Reds pass lol
Ironic considering Pittsburgh hates this guy’s guts after what happened this season.
As it’s not my comment, I’ll leave it up to DockEllisDee to hit you with the r/woooosh..
Just shows that a couple of hot weeks can make a season. He hit 118 after May.