Michael Brantley's injury has kept him off of the field. But the other outfielders signed this offseason are hardly any better. What lessons can we learn about signing free agents
Like you, I was surprised to see the defensive metrics weigh so heavily. For a moment I had to do a double-take to confirm you used fWAR instead of bWAR (the latter of which is often critiqued for placing too much value on defensive metrics).
I’m not sure I entirely agree with your conclusion that teams should avoid free agency altogether (or exclusively swing big therein). As Brantley’s prior free agent contracts showed us, there’s value to be had out there (2019: 3.8 fWAR; 2020:* 1.1 fWAR; 2021: 2.3 fWAR; 2022: 1.2 fWAR by June prior to injury). Sure they are lotto tickets of sorts but aren’t prospects or internal options equally unknown? Are these free agents any more of a lotto ticket than an unproven/unheralded University of Houston draft pick? As you note, Julks has significantly more playing time than Brantley and he’s barely edging him in fWAR after just 8 games from Brantley. Internal options may be cheaper lotto tickets, no doubt, but at the end of the day (within budgetary confinements and reason), it’s good to have options and redundancy built in.
Like you, I was surprised to see the defensive metrics weigh so heavily. For a moment I had to do a double-take to confirm you used fWAR instead of bWAR (the latter of which is often critiqued for placing too much value on defensive metrics).
I’m not sure I entirely agree with your conclusion that teams should avoid free agency altogether (or exclusively swing big therein). As Brantley’s prior free agent contracts showed us, there’s value to be had out there (2019: 3.8 fWAR; 2020:* 1.1 fWAR; 2021: 2.3 fWAR; 2022: 1.2 fWAR by June prior to injury). Sure they are lotto tickets of sorts but aren’t prospects or internal options equally unknown? Are these free agents any more of a lotto ticket than an unproven/unheralded University of Houston draft pick? As you note, Julks has significantly more playing time than Brantley and he’s barely edging him in fWAR after just 8 games from Brantley. Internal options may be cheaper lotto tickets, no doubt, but at the end of the day (within budgetary confinements and reason), it’s good to have options and redundancy built in.
Wow, I didn’t realize Kiermeier was hitting so well - good for him!
Being healthy is a good thing. Both for playing time and performance.