Off The Rankings: Ranking the Best Utility Men
Yesterday, we introduced our 2018 MLB utility men, covering each team and each fringe roster player. These guys are not the stars of the team, but they are MLB players in their own right, some of the best 1,000 or so players in the world. The jacks-of-all-trades-masters-of-none often live just outside of the spotlight, but Off The Bench exists in part to shine the light on exactly those types of guys. They’re unique players occupying the amorphous holes left by the starters on their roster. How do we rank the best utility men with their diverse skills and varying paths to playing time? Well… inexactly.
With so many variables, I find it best to simplify things by compartmentalizing them. Siloed thinking may result in an answer that’s wholly irrational, but at least we have an answer instead of paralysis. As such, we’ll consider each player in terms of the following variables:
- Middle Infield (MI) – Does the player play the middle infield? For our purposes, we will only be considering if the player has made a start in the last three years at a given position. While many players will tell you that their flawless shagging during batting practice qualifies as versatility, a manager’s willingness to insert Player X into the lineup at that position is the true litmus test.
- Corner Infield (CI) – Does the player play the corner infield? There is an argument to be had that a player who plays the middle infield can play the corner, but doesn’t because he’s more valuable up the middle. For our purposes, we don’t care about those possibilities. Again, points will be awarded based on the last three years.
- Outfield – Does the player play the outfield? Just as with the CI, a players’ tenacity in batting practice does not count for our purposes.
- Catch/Pitch – The ultimate versatility is a player who can play the field and catch and/or pitch at the MLB level. We covered Christian Bethancourt’s attempt to do this, and Shohei Ohtani is attempting it now. The feat is tough and deserves its own point.
- Average – Does the player hit for a relatively high average? The cut off here is a .260 average at the big league level in the last two years. For those guys with minimal MLB experience, we’ll look into the depths of their minor league track record.
- Power – Does the player hit for relatively high power? The cut off here is a .400 Slugging Percentage at the big league level in the last two years. For those guys with minimal MLB experience, we’ll look into the depths of their minor league track record.
- Speed – Is the player fast? If he’s stolen more than 5 bases in the last three years, we’ll count it. We’ll count MLB steals for players with over 300 plate appearances at the big league level. Those with fewer, we’ll look into the depths of their minor league track record.
- Risk – Is the player an established Major Leaguer? Do we know about what to expect out of him?
So where does all of this get us? How about a confusing table for your enjoyment.
| MI | CI | Outfield | Catch/Pitch | Average | Power | Speed | Risk | Total | ||
| CHC | Ben Zobrist | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| HOU | Marwin Gonzalez | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| TOR | Yangervis Solarte | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| NYM | Jose Reyes | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| MIN | Eduardo Escobar | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| PIT | Sean Rodriguez | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| COL | Ian Desmond | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| LAD | Enrique Hernandez | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| STL | Jose Martinez | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| TBR | Daniel Robertson | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||
| WAS | Wilmer Difo | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| OAK | Jed Lowrie | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| SEA | Andrew Romine | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| ARI | Daniel Descalso | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| SDP | Cory Spangenberg | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| BOS | Blake Swihart | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| NYY | Tyler Wade | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||
| ATL | Charlie Culberson | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||
| PHI | Roman Quinn | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||
| CLE | Giovanny Urshela | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| KCR | Cheslor Cuthbert | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | ||
| MIL | Eric Sogard | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| LAA | Jefry Marte | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | ||
| TEX | Jurickson Profar | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| SFG | Kelby Tomlinson | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |||
| BAL | Anthony Santander | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | ||||
| CWS | Tyler Saladino | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | |||
| MIA | Garrett Cooper | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |||
| DET | JaCoby Jones | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| CIN | Phillip Ervin | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Effectively, we’ve separated the utility guys into 6 tiers, which I will then rank using some semblence of logic.
Tier 1
- 1. Ben Zobrist
- 2. Marwin Gonzalez
Gonzalez nearly got the nod over Zobrist because of his youth and newfound power streak, but the lengthy resume and OBP prowess of Zobrist won out.
Tier 2
- 3. Yangervis Solarte
- 4. Sean Rodriguez
- 5. Ian Desmond
- 6. Enrique Hernandez
- 7. Eduardo Escobar
- 8. Jose Reyes
Each of these players combines speed with pop and positional flexibility. On a given day or week, each could look like star, but is not well suited for an everyday role. Solarte gets the nod because of his ability to fill in at shortstop and provide offense. The others cannot match his combination of good skills across multiple areas.
Tier 3
- 9. Jed Lowrie
- 10. Daniel Descalso
- 11. Cory Spangenberg
- 12. Wilmer Difo
- 13. Daniel Robertson
- 14. Jose Martinez
- 15. Andrew Romine
This group shares a quality that this writer wishes he had in his playing days: They’re good baseball players, who deserve to be on MLB rosters. Still, they’re Tier 3 utility men because they are not quite the elite athletes of the guys above. Lowrie is the most proven in the list and gets the nod, while Jose Martinez does not have the flexibility that we look for in utility guys in 2018. And Andrew Romine’s career .294 OBP prevents the versatile defender from finding one of the 210 starting position player spots in the Majors.
Tier 4
- 16. Jurickson Profar
- 17. Eric Sogard
- 18. Tyler Wade
- 19. Charlie Culberson
- 20. Roman Quinn
- 21. Giovanny Urshela
- 22. Blake Swihart
- 23. Cheslor Cuthbert
- 24. Jefry Marte
- 25. Kelby Tomlinson
What happens when a young athletic player struggles to hit in their first (and second) round in the Majors? Or if a player shows promise in the low minors only to struggle in the high-majors? To Tier 4 of Off The Bench’s Utility Rankings they go!
Tier 5
- 26. Anthony Santander
- 27. Tyler Saladino
What separates these guys from Tier 4? Positional eligibility. Santander doesn’t play up the middle, while Saladino doesn’t play the outfield. Also, neither has proven themselves to be good hitters.
Tier 6
- 28. JaCoby Jones
- 29. Phillip Ervin
- 30. Garrett Cooper
Yeah… finding yourself as a fringe-MLBer on a rebuilding team has its benefits. The Tigers, Reds, and Marlins are providing the opportunity to unproven athletes who may just turn themselves into real MLBers.
The Trend
One thing this exercise illuminated is that good teams tend to collect the best utility guys. Maybe it’s just that these teams can afford the luxuries of life, such as a quality 25th man. Or maybe the teams are good because of the quality glue guy filling in as needed. Rather than worry about causation, let’s take a quick look at the correlation. Below is the most recent power rankings trended against the points that each team’s utility guy earned in our process.
-Sean Morash with help from Daniel R. Epstein
