Carlos Correa to Richen Pool of FAs

[Michael K.]

He is a better option that Frazier, and far worse than several SS’s available. Seems like a no brained.

[Big_Maple]

Not sure where else to stick this, but a thread about SSs seemed reasonable. The talking heads over at mlb.com ranked the top landing spots for Trea Turner. Unsurprisingly, the M's didn't make the list. Always a bridesmaid and never a bride.

https://www.mlb.com/news/trea-turner-fr ... op-suitors

[Seattle or Bust]

FWIW in 1,290 plate appearances over the past two seasons J.P. Crawford has posted an OPS+ of 101 and a wRC+ of 103.

As points of reference to Crawford's career wRC+ of 98, Hall of Fame shortstops Ozzie Smith and Luis Aparicio had career wRC+ of 90 and 83, respectively, but were know for their defensive prowess.

J.P. Crawford is no Hall of Fame shortstop ... Crawford may never receive an All Star nod. But Crawford is at least an average-hitting, average-fielding shortstop.

This year the Mariners finished 22nd in fWAR at shortstop (barely in front of the fellow postseason qualifying Rays and Yankees). Would another shortstop represent an upgrade over Crawford? Of course. But the Mariners should not prioritize shortstop this offseason.

Even if you are fine with JP in the lineup every day a move to 2B seems to be the most viable way to improve offensive production because of significant upgrade options at SS and a complete dearth at 2B.

I’m too lazy to look up the stats here, but aren’t JPs defensive and offensive numbers at SS better than Frazier’s this year at 2B?

If so - and assuming skills are more or less transferable - moving JP to 2B would be an upgrade overall (assuming they sign a stud at SS, it would be an even greater upgrade).

Nope.

JP ranked near last among qualified SS's defensively. Frazier ranked near the top, even though Schoop, Edman, and Giminez far surpassed him.

JP's bat was better. But that was mostly due to a gaudy April. JP accumulated 1.6 fWAR in the month of April and led all shortstops in WAR. The next 5 months JP only accumulated .7 WAR, 2nd to last among qualified SS's, and 3rd worst offensively.

From May forward, JP would have been around the 3rd worst 2B in baseball offensively. Slightly ahead of what Frazier put up.

Long story short... they both were horrible with the bat. Frazier was decent defensively and JP likely would play 2B just as well.

Both players you wouldn't want on your roster given their performance over the last 5 months.

[Big_Maple]

Interesting, SoB (punctuation matters as there's a difference between "interesting SoB" and "interesting, SoB")...

JP must really have fallen off a defensive cliff. He won a gold glove in 2020 and was a finalist last year. What the hell happened?

[GL_Storm]

Interesting, SoB (punctuation matters as there's a difference between "interesting SoB" and "interesting, SoB")...

JP must really have fallen off a defensive cliff. He won a gold glove in 2020 and was a finalist last year. What the hell happened?

I think it's mostly balls taking bad hops but if his defensive numbers are down next year it will bear taking a closer look.

[Seattle or Bust]

Interesting, SoB (punctuation matters as there's a difference between "interesting SoB" and "interesting, SoB")...

JP must really have fallen off a defensive cliff. He won a gold glove in 2020 and was a finalist last year. What the hell happened?

I think it's mostly balls taking bad hops but if his defensive numbers are down next year it will bear taking a closer look.

Here's a couple notes:

According to baseball Savant, JP had -11 runs saved against right handed hitters. In 2020 when he won the gold glove, he had 5 defensive runs saved against right handed hitters in just 60 games. From 2019-2021 with the M's... he was never in the negative in this category.

He struggled immensely in standard defense and shifts to the left side... Fangraphs gave him -1.2 range above average... not good considering they are eliminating the shift in 2023.

JP has had some seasons where he's struggled with throwing errors but his glove has always been solid... he usually only has a few glove errors in a season. The major difference in '22 is that he had 7 errors with the glove, his most since 2019. In 2020 when he won his Gold Glove... he had just 1 fielding error and 2 throwing errors.

Bottom line:

1. His range was bad.
2. His arm was sorta inaccurate.
3. His glove was bad.

Not a good combo.