Red Sox Rankings: American League East Third Basemen

This is the second in our weekly series of Power Rankings.  The Red Sox third baseman is near the bottom of this ranking, but how does the rest of the division fare in this comparison?

2015 was not a good year for the starting Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval who struggled on both sides of the ball.  His enormous $95 million deal seemed to be one of the things that pushed Ben Cherington out of the General Manager spot as Sandoval struggled in his first season in Boston. More detail will be offered on the individual pages, but is he worse than the Yankees’ third baseman Chase Headley? How do the other three spots shake out? This is one of the strongest positions in the division so Sandoval would have been hard pressed to make the top of this list in his best season, but let’s take a look on how we should rank these guys going into 2016.

Next: Josh Donaldson

1. Josh Donaldson

When a player is three years away from free agency and the best player on his team, generally he doesn’t think he will be traded and Donaldson was shocked (along with the rest of baseball) to find out he had been traded from Oakland to Toronto as he was before the 2015 season.  All he did was post an 8.8 Wins Against Replacement (WAR) which boosted him to the American League Most Valuable Player award for 2015.  That 8.8 is more than triple the 2.5 WAR of the three players Oakland received back from him who played in the majors last season (one of them hasn’t played above A ball in the minors).

Donaldson led the American League in runs, RBI, total bases and even sacrifice flies last season.  He also added the Silver Slugger award to his trophy case for 2015.  The fiery third baseman was also one of the top fielders at third base last season.  In 2014 he was a finalist for the Gold Glove award.  On June 24, his headlong dive into the stands in Tampa to preserve a Marco Estrada perfect game (then Estrada gave up a hit to the next batter) was one of the highlight plays of the season exhibiting Donaldson’s spectacular athleticism and burning desire to compete at all costs.

If Donaldson can stay healthy, he is sure to be in the mix for MVP in whatever league he plays in for years to come.

Next: Manny Machado

3. Evan Longoria

At one point in his career, Longoria was the premier third baseman in the American League East.  He won Gold Gloves in 2009 and 2010 at third base.  He was knocking in over a 100 runs per year as well while being at the center of the Rays lineup.  A severe hamstring injury limited him to only 74 games in 2012 and he has not been quite the same since.  While he had an .842 OPS in 2013, he has not been much of a factor at all in recent years in the postseason.  Since a 1.067 OPS in the 2008 ALCS vs. Boston, Longoria is 11 for 73 (.151) with three homers and five doubles.  Not the production you want from the middle of your lineup, especially the cornerstone of your franchise.

The last two seasons have been healthy ones for Longoria but his OPS+ of 107 in 2014 and 110 in 2015 seem to indicate a player in decline as he hits the age of thirty.  The Rays have seven more years committed to Longoria (and $110.5 million) but they might benefit if they try to get him more days off this year.  As his production has gotten to the lowest level of his career, he has played at least 160 games each of the last three seasons.  While his fielding is still outstanding, perhaps some rest might help his bat somewhat.  His numbers are just not comparable to the players above him on this list.   Teams will continue to fear the damage he can potentially do, he is slipping back to league average so he is right in the middle of American League East third basemen.

Next: 4. Chase Headley

4.  Chase Headley

Despite his best efforts to be the worst third baseman in the league, Headley was not able to sink lower than Sandoval in 2015.  The 2012 National League Gold Glove third baseman had his worst year fielding by far in 2015.  His 23 errors were 10 more than his previous high for errors.  Like golf, it is not a category in which you want a high number.   His .946 fielding percentage was also easily a career worst.

For Headley, he might remind fans of Jacoby Ellsbury in that he had one incredible year with home runs and RBI then went back to far fewer entries in those categories.  2012 was a magical year for the former San Diego Padre.  He had career highs in home runs (31), runs batted in (115 which led the National League), walks, and tied for a career high in stolen bases.  It is as if it is a different player because Headley has no other season with more than 13 homers or 62 RBI.  Hendricks Sports must be on Scott Boras level of negotiation tactics as they managed to secure him a 4 year 52 million dollar deal before last season despite having just that one spectacular season.  Just for good measure, his OPS that season was more than 100 points higher than any other year in his career.

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Even considering all these average stats, a 93 OPS+ for 2o15 making him worse than the league average.  His stats were still superior to Sandoval’s as Headley finished with a 1.1 WAR for the season beating out Panda who was negative in that category.  A .259/.324/.369 batting line isn’t great but it doesn’t make you the worst in the division when Sandoval plays in the division.

Next: Pablo Sandoval

5.  Pablo Sandoval

2015 was a nightmare season for Sandoval.  It actually started out well for the former San Francisco Giant.  He posted an OPS of .839 in April which Red Sox fans would have been satisfied with if it had lasted through the season.  In May the OPS fell off the table to .553.  In June it rebounded to .775, so there was still a chance he could have had a solid season.  After the first half of the season his OPS was a decent .758.

Perhaps it was the media scrutiny or the fans impatience but Sandoval’s performance in the second half of the season was abysmal.  His line of .210/.267/.335 was a huge disappointment for Red Sox fans eager for the Kung Fu Panda to perform up to his previous levels he had attained with the Giants.  Sandoval’s right handed hitting was so terrible (two hits in 41 at-bats) that he abandoned hitting right handed versus left handed pitchers which he had done for his whole career.

While the team wasn’t expecting a Gold Glove defender, Sandoval’s Defensive Runs Saved was a terrible -13 which means he was that much worse than the league average for third basemen.  This had occurred in 2009 as well, but considering he was 17 runs better last season in this category, a bad year could not have been much more complete than 2015.

Next: Heath Hembree seems ready for 2016

The Red Sox can only hope that Sandoval can turn things around in 2016, to at least move up in this list as the season goes on.  Since they still owe him $77 million, he is untradeable as much as fans might want Travis Shaw to step in at third base.

Stay tuned to BoSoxInjection.com each Tuesday to see how the Red Sox fare in that week’s Power Rankings