Hanley Ramirez’s wrecking-ball weekend against the Yankees just might have sealed him the award for Most Valuable Play-Doh.
You know, take a player and successfully mold him from one thing into another.
Ramirez began this season never having played first base in the majors, just as surely as he began last season never having played left field. Let’s say the left-field experiment went as well as Roseanne Barr, national anthem singer.
And it was not as if the early results from first base thrilled the Red Sox. But there was no DH role for Ramirez because of David Ortiz’s presence, and he was only in Season 2 of a four-year, $88 million contract that already was a disaster. So team and player stuck with it and boom – literally.
In 68 games since June 23, Ramirez has 23 homers and a 1.053 OPS. It is somewhat reminiscent of Mike Napoli going from dabbling at first base to a full-timer at the position with the 2013 Red Sox, helping elevate that lineup to a 1-through-9 force. Those Red Sox led the majors in scoring by 57 total runs en route to a championship. These Red Sox lead by 32 (101 runs more than any other AL team).
But Ramirez is hardly alone in shifting on the field to help a title contender. Heck, he is not even the only Ramirez. Jose Ramirez, primarily a shortstop who had started a combined 15 games at third base and left before this year, might have saved the Indians season by thriving at both new positions in 2016.
Consider that both the Nationals shortstop of the past (Ian Desmond) and future (Trea Turner) have sparked division leaders by being productive center fielders. Since Turner was installed as the Nationals’ regular leadoff-hitting center fielder on July 26 – solving two big Nationals crises – they are 30-20, tied for the second-best mark in the majors in that time with, yep, Desmond’s Rangers. Desmond had started one game in center in the Dominican Winter League in 2009; Turner never had started a pro game in the outfield.
What if I would have told you in spring training that one of the saving moves of this Mets season would be making their shortstop of the past, Jose Reyes, into the third baseman of the present?
Do you see a trend here? Yep, stock up on shortstops because their athletic gifts make them the most likely to be able to transition elsewhere on the diamond. That was a factor, for example, in the Yankees taking Gleyber Torres over other appetizing possibilities in the Aroldis Chapman trade despite already being deep at shortstop in the system and having the burgeoning Didi Gregorius in the majors.
Torres was available for the same reason Starlin Castro had to move from short to second during last season and was ultimately also traded to the Yankees – because the Cubs have Addison Russell and Javier Baez. Russell is the primary shortstop, which has allowed Baez to become a power-hitting defensive force bouncing between second and third.
When Baez plays second, Ben Zobrist often moves to the outfield. Zobrist came up as a shortstop with the Astros before becoming a jack-of-all-trades star with the Rays, who now are trying to do the same with Brad Miller – whose defense at short was iffy, but whose bat (28 homers) has motivated a move to first and the outfield.
Like Russell, Houston’s Carlos Correa debuted last season and assured that no one else will be the regular shortstop for a while. Thus, Alex Bregman, the second draft pick in 2015, had to move from short to third and was excelling for the Astros before a hamstring injury likely ended his campaign.
Jean Segura, a faltering shortstop in Milwaukee, is leading the National League in hits as a Diamondbacks second baseman. Jonathan Villar, Segura’s successor with the Brewers, was flourishing at short, but was shuffled to third when top prospect Orlando Arcia was promoted in early August.
The influx of great young shortstops such as Correa, Russell, Francisco Lindor and Corey Seager has been a prime motivation in relocating shortstops. Just two years ago, in 2014, 22 players started at least 100 games at short. Three (Derek Jeter, Jimmy Rollins and Ruben Tejada) are no longer on active rosters. Of the remaining 19, nearly half had a different primary position this season (Castro, Desmond, Miller, Reyes, Segura, Hanley Ramirez, Yunel Escobar, Jed Lowrie and Jhonny Peralta).
That is the short story of 2016.
A power run up the middle
The weekend ended with 97 players with at least 20 homers. The record is 103, set in 1999. But there were 19 players between 17 and 19 homers and – it should be noted – Gary Sanchez was among those at 16.
If the record falls, it will have much to do with changes in the sources of power these days – notably from the middle of the diamond. Already shortstops have hit 462 homers this year, crushing the previous mark of 423 in 2002, and second basemen have socked 536 homers to usurp the record of 477 from 2009.
The only other position likely to set a new mark in this long-ball-happy season is DH (there had been 399 DH homers through the weekend; the record is 404 in 2006).
Eleven shortstops have 20 homers in 2016. The record was eight in 2007. The only player to achieve it in both years was Troy Tulowitzki, though Hanley Ramirez hit 29 homers as a Marlins shortstop in 2007 and has 28 as a first baseman this year.
Ten second basemen have 20 homers, topping the nine of 2009. Robinson Cano and Ian Kinsler did it in both years.
Another closer bites the dust
Perhaps too late, the Giants removed Santiago Casilla from his job as closer after his MLB-high-tying ninth blown save Saturday. No one has produced more blown saves since 2011 (10 by Carlos Marmol and Jordan Walden). Five of Casilla’s blown saves have come in the second half, a central failure in San Francisco going 22-37, the second-worst record in the majors in the second half.
His removal means just seven relievers who led their teams in saves in 2015 are still that club’s closer at present, and just one – the Dodgers’ Kenley Jansen – was doing so prior to 2014 (where have you gone, Mariano Rivera?). And Jansen is a free agent after this season.
Besides Jansen, the only other two closers who have been in the same job for the same team since even 2014 are Cleveland’s Cody Allen and Baltimore’s Zach Britton.