Yunel Escobar made his big-league debut in 2007. Since then a total of 27 players have accumulated at least 1,000 plate appearances while seeing at least two-thirds of their starts at shortstop. Here’s how he ranks among those 27 shortstops in OPS:
Hanley Ramirez .935 Troy Tulowitzki .849 Derek Jeter .813 Jimmy Rollins .796 Jose Reyes .787 YUNEL ESCOBAR .771 Miguel Tejada .760 Stephen Drew .760 Rafael Furcal .758 J.J. Hardy .751
Escobar has the sixth-highest OPS among all shortstops during that time, behind only Hanley Ramirez, Troy Tulowitzki, Derek Jeter, Jimmy Rollins, and Jose Reyes. If you’re curious the man he was traded for, Alex Gonzalez, ranks 14th with a .737 OPS. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not suggesting that trades should be analyzed by OPS (you should read Matthew Pouliot’s in-depth analysis of the deal). However, what I am suggesting is that most of the mainstream analysis of the Escobar-for-Gonzalez swap yesterday didn’t really go beyond “Escobar had a bad first half” and “the Braves were sick of his attitude” while guys like Jon Heyman of SI.com and Buster Olney of ESPN.com deemed it a huge win for Atlanta. Perhaps that type of shallow analysis shouldn’t be surprising at this point, because it’s prevalence is one of the driving forces behind why blogs and non-mainstream baseball outlets have thrived so much recently. Still, it seems odd that so many people are willing to take Escobar’s “attitude problem” as gospel and focus on three months of poor play while brushing aside the fact that he’s been one of the half-dozen best-hitting shortstops in all of baseball during his four-year career. He’s also six years younger than Gonzalez, every bit as good defensively, and under team control for three more seasons. I think the Blue Jays did well to get a 27-year-old shortstop with an outstanding glove and track record of good hitting for a 33-year-old shortstop they signed for $3 million this offseason, but I’m open to the notion that the trade makes some sense for the Braves too. However, calling the trade a steal for Atlanta because Escobar rubbed people the wrong way in a career-worst first half ignores the previous three years of his career and 10 years of Gonzalez’s career.
