And he was playing it well enough after 3 months that it wasn't an issue. Vinnie's played 3rd since HS. On the one hand, that makes you say, "man, he'll NEVER get better." And on the other hand, all the tools to do so should be there. He wasn't a terrible defensive 3B in college.
Vinnie's spent all his energy turning that swing into a thing of beauty.
Now he needs to stop uglying up the field. He doesn't need to be great. Was Jeter great at SS his first decade there? No.
But he kept working on it and got it to a non-sucky level while his bat made him a HOFer.
You don't keep an All-Star bat in the minors because of his glove. You just make sure you have a late-inning defensive replacement available, let him DH some...keep his glove damage to a minimum and let him swing the bat a lot.
What we're doing with Montero, basically.
How many guys can share DH? We're about to find out, if Vinnie keeps hitting like this.
I don't think Vinnie will be up until June, but ANY tanking by Chone early in the year will make it a really easy call (assuming Seager isn't demolishing the league as our starting 3B at that time).
Player 1: .900 fielding, 2.54 RF
Player 2: .918 fielding, 2.51 RF
Player 2 is Catricala at 3B. Player 1 is Aramis Ramirez in the minors, ages 18-22. He's only EVER played the field at 3B, and his career MLB line is .954 fielding and a 2.43 RF. Bad...but survivable. He's a 4 WAR offensive player, and IMO defense is over-rated.
But you can get better in the pros in the field - and if you're a 4 WAR offensive player you'd better plan on it. Maybe Vinnie's like Alex Gordon and he won't be able to focus at the plate with all his worries about the field, so they'll need to move him to LF so he can focus on hitting.
I haven't seen that yet, but we'll certainly find out. At this point, though, I'd be shoehorning him into the hot corner even if it's a tight fit.
~G
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