General manager Terry Ryan revealed during a 1500-ESPN radio interview yesterday that Trevor Plouffe will be an outfielder going forward, which isn’t shocking considering how awful the former first-round pick looked as an infielder for the Twins despite playing 680 games at shortstop in the minors.
He has the tools to be a strong corner outfielder defensively and with Jamey Carroll signed to a two-year, $7 million deal that may be the clearest path to at-bats in 2012, but before the middle of this year Plouffe had never even played the outfield in seven pro seasons.
Moving to the outfield full time also means Plouffe’s bat will be held to a much higher standard and aside from a 50-game stretch at Triple-A this year he’s never really produced like a corner outfielder.
He’s hit .262 with a .767 OPS in 337 games at Triple-A and .226 with a .668 OPS in 103 games in the majors, so unless his two-month breakout in Rochester at age 25 is a sign of things to come Plouffe will have trouble hitting enough to be more than a platoon player.
Fans sitting behind first base at Target Field won’t have to worry about ducking as much, though.
