FanPost

Free Agent: Mark Reynolds?

Sigh.

Ok, there's an elephant in the room when it comes to first base free agents and no one wants to talk about it. His name is Mark mother-f'ing Reynolds. Let's discuss.

A lot of people think Mark Reynolds sucks, and for a lot of very legitimate reasons. His stat line from 2014 was .196/.287/ .394. His career defense is worth -8.6 dWAR (-45.9 UZR @ 3B, -12.9 UZR @ 1B) over 8 seasons. He has a career 31.9% strikeout rate. I won't go on.

But there are some really good reasons why he sucks less than you think. His 2014 season was driven largely by a .218 BABIP - 75 points below his career average. Steamer projects that number to come back up to .263 and for a .216/.310/.409 and a wRC+ of 103 in '15. His power is still there, with 22 home runs in 378 ABs, and a .198 ISO. And his strikeouts have been down a couple percentage points over the last couple of years, for what that's worth. Offensively, he looks setup for a modest bounce back season in '15, and if his BABIP goes back to his career average, a really good season.

And his defense last year...was actually pretty darn good, with a +5.6UZR @ 1ST and a +6.4 UZR @ 3B. Fangraphs called him the second most improved defensive player in baseball last year.

And its his defensively flexibility at third base, as opposed to the outfield, that makes him appealing. All a 1B/OF adds is a 5th outfielder for this team; how much playing time does that really amount to? Meanwhile, a 1B/3B can provide depth to both Harrison at third AND Walker at second (with J-Hay sliding over to second.) On top of the normal vs. LHP platoon gig, you could easily be talking about another 20-30 starts at third, if not more. Starts which otherwise will go to S. Rodriguez and his .611 vs. RHP split. So unless Pedro can magically cure his yips and do the same thing, there's a lot of value to a 1B/3B platoon guy, and Reynolds is the best name I come up with in free agency, such as it is, and won't cost very much.

Thoughts?

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