PITTSBURGH — Adam Frazier has played pretty much everywhere defensively for the Pirates this season. He’s played 16 games in right field, 16 at second base, 15 in left field and five at third base. That’s the kind of positional versatility that the Pirates have used to great effect with Sean Rodriguez and Josh Harrison before that.
But they also provided very different roles. Harrison was an above-average hitter that the Pirates moved around to find ways to keep his bat in the lineup. Rodriguez has been an above-average defender at pretty much every position, and his 2016 surge with the bat notwithstanding, his value coming into the year was mostly seen as a defensive substitute.
That’s why Harrison will make $5 million this season, while Rodriguez will make $2.5 million. So which kind of utilityman is Frazier?
So far, he is more of a hitter. Of his 1.0 WAR this season (per FanGraphs), he has 4.7 runs above replacement offensively and 0.7 runs above replacement defensively, which means he has been seven times more valuable offensively than defensively during his admittedly brief major league tenure.
But Frazier made two critical mistakes in the fourth inning of the Pirates’ 6-1 loss to the Washington Nationals Saturday night that showed the dangers of playing a bat-first player at an important defensive position like second base.
On a bunt that was fielded by catcher Francisco Cervelli, Frazier failed to cover first base and Cervelli’s throw ended up in right field when he tried to hold onto it. Three hitters later, Frazier fielded what could have been a double-play ball, but overthrew Sean Rodriguez at second base, pulling him off the bag.
Manager Clint Hurdle was obviously displeased with his defense’s fourth-inning performance, which went beyond Frazier’s pair of gaffes.
“There were miscommunications,” he said. “There’s a challenge there. Even thought the first baseman is going back [on the Cervelli error where no one covered first base], I have to believe the second baseman has to get to the bag. Somebody has to get to the bag. … Then the throw, we didn’t have a good feed.”
Hurdle said that they evaluate each defensive play individually and that he’ll work with Frazier, as he does all his defenders, on the mental mistake.
“Each one is individual,” he said. “You take them as they come with the individual. You show them the video. You walk them back through it. At the end of it, [you ask], ‘If that play happens again, how are you going to handle it next time?’ You try to help him”
The error was Frazier’s fifth of the season, and he has at least one error at each position he’s played. His season sample size at each position isn’t really large enough for his defensive metrics to be of much value.
Frazier said he doesn’t have a preferred position, but that he does feel a bit more pressure defensively because of the nature of his role. He doesn’t have a guaranteed spot, so any mistake can be easily magnified.
“It just makes it tough, but there’s no excuse,” he said. “That’s a tailor-made play right there. I take pride in my defense. Making errors makes me more mad than anybody else. Nova’s working his butt off up there. A tough play in a big situation and we kind of let him down tonight.”
