Over the last four years, he hasn't had a wRC+ under 110 or over 121, but there's so clearly the. Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor will play shortstop for now. We need your support to make FanGraphs sustainable so you can continue to enjoy all of the stats and tools you've come to rely on, like The Leaderboards. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. Carpenter upped his power output, and his grounder pull rate jumped from 53% to 68%. Heyward is actually the most accomplished offensive player in the group due to being worth more than 20 runs above average on the bases, but strictly as a hitter, these are the players with similar profiles. To isolate players similar to Heyward, I looked for players from 1960 to 2007 within five of Heywards 27.8 WAR and within 20% of his 3429 plate appearances. So its difficult to shake the tinge of disappointment thats come to hang around Heyward in the past couple of years, not necessarily because hes done anything wrong he is, after all, just 25 years old and boasts a career .345 wOBA but because in him we see fantasy studliness, and cant help but feel let down each year when he falls short of making good on his immense potential. But Trejo, who came to Spring Training to try to change some minds, had a change in latitude because Gold Glove second baseman Brendan Rodgers sustained a dislocated left shoulder in the previous game. His work for Inside Edge Scouting Services has appeared on ESPN.com and Yahoo.com, and he was a fantasy baseball columnist for Rotoworld from 2009-2010. The last qualifier hurt more than helped Heyward, as Barry Bonds and Adrian Beltre were removed from the list. Its really impressive to see a guy go out there and throw a ton of strikes and throw strikes with his offspeed pitches. by Handedness. The fact that he gets value from non-traditional means is also not a brain buster. Jason Heyward Positions: Rightfielder, Centerfielder and Leftfielder Bats: Left Throws: Left 6-5 , 240lb (196cm, 108kg) Born: August 9, 1989 (Age: 33-206d) in Ridgewood, NJ us More bio, uniform, draft, salary info 1x All-Star 2016 World Series 5x Gold Glove Wilson Overall Def Player 22 22 22 Become a Stathead & surf this site ad-free. Throw caution to the wind, even. Technically, the entire 1927 Yankees couldnt legally buy a beer, either. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity. Higgins over one inning. Even with the extra outside swings, pop ups and grounders, Heyward was likely the victim of some bad bounces. Heyward and David Peralta, a pair of veteran left-handed hitters, could see time against right-handed pitchers. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. by Handedness. He hit 27 home runs in 2012, but recorded just 13 of them this year along with an isolated slugging percentage of .146, essentially league average. Those are just selective links, but they show Heyward with a right-center approach, and a good amount of batted-ball authority. by Handedness, Making Too Much of Too Little Jason Heyward, Effectively Wild Episode 852: 2016 Season Preview Series: Chicago Cubs, Evaluating the 2016 Prospects: St. Louis Cardinals, pulled ground balls have by far the lowest success rate of any balls in play. Im a little stubborn in that way. Contracts matter Miller is entering his first year of arbitration while Heyward is now a FA. Jacoby Ellsbury just finished Year Two of his contract. Trejo, 27, is fine with pushing for all the starts he can at second if thats his opportunity to be in the lineup. sent RF Jason Heyward on a rehab assignment to Gwinnett Braves. My favorite minor story line this season is that the Cubs are paying about $40 million to replace Heyward with Bellinger, and the Dodgers are paying about $0 to replace Bellinger with Heyward. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. That level of production would justify a $200 million contract based on the first five years alone. Even if Heyward were to hit for more power, that might be offset by a drop in singles, or by an increase in strikeouts. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Handedness, 2007 June Amateur Draft - Round: 1, Pick: 14, Overall: 14, Team: Atlanta Braves. For an awfully consistent hitter, Jason Heyward is considered an awfully frustrating hitter. Very obviously, he can sting a ball when he gets extended. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. . by Handedness, Trying to Put a Value on Jason Heyward in Free Agency, Effectively Wild Episode 761: An Offseason Friday Gallimaufry, The Best of FanGraphs: November 2-6, 2015. Using FanGraphs approximate current cost of a win at $8 million, the numbers are even bigger. by Handedness, 2007 June Amateur Draft - Round: 1, Pick: 14, Overall: 14, Team: Atlanta Braves. Rojas, a 34-year-old, glove-first veteran, was acquired in the winter to aid the groups depth. Its not that he cant hit the ball out to all fields, but his career-best homer rate is to the pull side. Heywards value also wasnt helped by a Braves lineup that finished among baseballs worst in wOBA and runs scored, and if the Braves were to move Evan Gattis this winter to make room for Christian Bethancourt, the lineup likely would only be weaker in 2015. Its hard not to fall in love with the fantasy potential of Jason Heyward, especially for those of us who cant forget the cant-miss hype surrounding his debut and a rookie season that seemed like the precursor to imminent superstardom. Shelby Miller is a good young pitcher, but straight up for Heyward? This is how it usually works with increases in pulled grounders: Its a consequence of taking a more power-centric approach. Searching again for players from 1960 to 2007, limiting those players through age-25 within 20% of Heywards PAs, but instead of using WAR, look at players with a wRC+ between 110 and 125 and within 15 points of Heywards 121 wRC+ at age 25. Taylor may also appear at third base in Cactus League games. 5 seed Indiana State Sycamores (22-11, 13-7 MVC) in the MVC Tournament Saturday at Enterprise Center, beginning at 3:30 PM on CBS Sports Network. Examining The Cubs' Fifth Starter Options from MLBTradeRumors.com at 2/22/2023 4:39:00 AM. The team is heavy on left-handed hitting outfielders, with David Peralta locked in along with Jason Heyward fighting for a spot and top prospect James Outman on the cusp. Heywards small sample of air balls also supports this. Well know whats up by the beginning of May. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted He clobbered 27 homers when he was 22. Since the end of World War II, there are 42 players to have produced more than Heywards 61.9 defensive runs above average through age-25, and there are 61 players responsible for more offensive runs above average than Heywards 94.5 through his age-25 season. Jason Heyward graphs for Major League baseball. Gallo got the upper hand on the Red Sox in his second inning at-bat, drawing a walk to nullify Boston's shift. Jason Heyward was a very good baseball player for a very long time. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. Latest News/Blog Posts about Jason Heyward. Injuries happen and players decline unexpectedly. Thats 40-50 points below the NL average and ranks among the likes of Aubrey Huff and Yorvit Torrealba. His work for Inside Edge Scouting Services has appeared on ESPN.com and Yahoo.com, and he was a fantasy baseball columnist for Rotoworld from 2009-2010. Currently, Yahoo! He clearly can the man stands 65. Heywards infield hit rate is three percent, which is in the same range as David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero and Billy Butler, guys whose times to first base are measured with sun dials instead of stop watches. . The hard contact, however, is further reinforcement that some offseason swing changes are paying dividends. Only Al Kaline, Willie Mays, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Alex Rodriguez were within 15 runs on defense and ahead of him on offense. Gotta elevate if youre going to be pull-focused. That was awesome, Kapler said. Dont look at me. One of the hottest young prospects in baseball right now is Atlanta's Jason Heyward. The team is confident in . The Royals, Billy Butler, and Young Pitching. Perhaps its fitting, if random, that Heywards most recent highlights on MLB.com are all home-run-saving catches. The Dodgers lost their starting shortstop for the entirety of the 2023 season in the third game of spring training. Dodgers Add Jason Heyward LA signs five-time Gold Glover to a minor league deal with an invite to major league camp via Bleacher Report Jason Heyward Cubs Moving On from Heyward Team. I think the Bogaerts and Carpenter examples are meant to show that, while ground ball pull rate might not seem to be related to power at all (as you say, ground balls are not that great usually), Jeff thinks of it as an indicator of change.. That search reveals the following players. With a bad shoulder and back luck, he still held his own in 2011 Craig Edwards can be found on twitter @craigjedwards. Advanced fielding statistics Ultimate Zone Rating (. Meanwhile, the team is likely stuck with big contracts for the likes of B.J. As to the first, this is not the article to convince someone about advanced defensive metrics, but his highlight-reel catches, mutiple Gold Gloves and three Fielding Bible awards seem to indicate there is some consensus from all viewpoints on the excellence of Heyward as a fielder. But in the previous five years, he had bounced between eight different organizations, unable to find his footing in the majors before an opportunity arose with the Dodgers. Because, even if he did it from the corner outfield, Heyward was able to emulate the Angelic newcomer in a way. 2023 Pre-Season Projections The general concern around Heyward and defense is twofold. With a 21.8 percent infield fly ball rate, he hit the ball up the elevator shaft more often than any batter with at least 400 plate appearances. As was the case with the offensive player-comps group, Heyward is more accomplished than almost all of the players on this list. Cubs president Jed Hoyer announced Monday the club intends to release veteran outfielder Jason Heyward from the final year of his deal at the end of the 2022 season. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman. Unfortunately, for studying purposes anyway, there simply are not enough of those types of players to look at. The 2023 series on team offense continues with the New York Yankees. Limiting Heyward comps solely to free agents leaves little by way of realistic comparison. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. And Heywards 57 percent ground ball rate places him among lightweights like Alexi Casilla, Kosuke Fukudome and Elvis Andrus. Jason Alias Heyward (born August 9, 1989), nicknamed " J-Hey " is an American professional baseball right fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. Freddie Freeman, and Jason Heyward . Phillies (24th, 1.4 WAR) With Bryce Harper undergoing Tommy John surgery and likely to miss the first half of the season, the spotlight is again on Nick Castellanos, whose performance in the first year of his five-year, $100 million deal was downright dreadful. But the power was largely absent. Nick Frasso, who had a 1.83 ERA and 76 strikeouts in 54 innings last season, was acquired from the Blue Jays in . Hes still really young Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. For one thing, pitchers have shied away from trying to bust Heyward inside, and instead are focusing on trying to get him to chase pitches away. ESPN, FanGraphs, MLB Pipeline . So I was like, Im just gonna kind of throw it at him down the middle. And he hit it out. Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 4:51 PM ET, Park Factors Heyward remains a tempting upside guy on draft day, but its hard to bid on him too far beyond the price tag of a No. Notable in the Dodgers lineup is Jason Heyward playing in back-to-back games for the first time this spring, starting in centerfield for the second straight day. Overall, the group still put up above average numbers offensively. We're asking for your help to make it. Heres a bomb to right. Kiner-Falefa was a defensive whiz with 10 Defensive Runs saved in 2022, helping result in the lowest runs allowed per game in the Bronx since 1981. Combining average power with a low strikeout rate (14.8% in 2015) and a solid walk rate (9.2%), Heywards wRC+ of 121 puts him in the upper third in terms of the leagues hitters. This group also aged incredibly well. Double-digit steals is a nice perk for a guy with potentially elite OBP and power numbers. The line was rough from lefty starter Austin Gomber on Tuesday against the Rangers four runs on five hits, including a Clint Frazier home run, while recording two outs. Aggravating as it might be, we dont know the answers to those questions. Last season, Oviedos fastball had five fewer inches of rise or more sink than four-seam fastballs at similar velocities. Jason Heyward Los Angeles Dodgers Age: 33 Bats/Throws: L/L 6' 5" / 240 OF Quick Look 2022 Games Played: CF: 26 RF: 21 RotoWire News: Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday that Heyward. Quinn worked this winter with hitting consultant Ryan Sutterer, who analyzed Quinns body movements and helped him understand how he can repeat his mechanics on a consistent basis. Contact David at david.golebiewski@gmail.com and check out his work at Journalist For Hire. They were like, Why are you not throwing it with a [sinker] grip and try to get used to it and learn how to throw it?. Regarding the second concern, I attempted to isolate only very good fielding outfielders.