When the Los Angeles Angels and the Kansas City Royals consummated a trade last December, Johnny Giavotella was shipped west and the Angels fanbase had little idea what to expect out of such a diminutive second baseman. The team had traded away Howie Kendrick to the Los Angels Dodgers a week earlier and needed someone to step into the void that Kendrick’s trade had created. Little did the fanbase know that Giavotella was more than enough.
Despite the Angels struggles on offense this season, people might be able to point to the better-than-expected production out of the second base spot despite Kendrick’s departure. Giavotella earned the job by beating out a myriad of candidates in spring training and has since seen himself play in 55 of the 56 games. He’s started 51 of them. After an offseason where some wondered if there would be a platoon job at second base, Johnny G has been able to man the position all by himself and bring stability to what could easily have been a disaster of a situation.
After the Angels 8-2 loss at the hands of the New York Yankees on Saturday evening, the pint-sized middle infielder is hitting .282/.339/.376 with 2 home runs, 21 runs batted in, 21 runs scored, .316 wOBA (Weighted On Base Average), and 108 wRC+ (Weighted Runs Created Plus). His predecessor, Howie Kendrick, has put up a .285/.347/.430 line for the Dodgers with 5 home runs, 23 runs batted in, 28 runs scored, .341 wOBA, and 118 wRC+.
To put it simply, Giavotella hasn’t been that much of a downgrade from Kendrick at all at the plate and both have been somewhat poor in the field this season. Defensive Runs Saved pegs Giavotella at -4 this year while Kendrick has managed to be worse than that, posting a -8 mark. UZR/150 (Ultimate Zone Rating Runs Above Average per 150 Games) grades Giavotella at -8.5 while Kendrick is at -9.0.
It seems disingenuous to compare Giavotella’s start to Kendrick’s start since one is an established veteran who has posted good numbers throughout his career while the other is playing better than he’s ever played. And that’s also why we are here; to discuss whether or not Johnny Giavotella can keep this pace up. It’s not that he’s hitting great or fielding great. It’s that he’s simply been a worthwhile replacement this year although he’s getting paid roughly $9 million less than the man who came before him.
Anytime you evaluate whether or not a hitter can sustain what he’s doing or if he can come out of a slump, you have to look at some vast variables to draw a conclusion. You have to realize that Giavotella is hitting at a career high level across all fronts. Highest average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, wOBA, and wRC+ of his career. It’s also the most plate appearances he’s received in a single season in his career and we just started June. He’s now up to 193 plate appearances. Giavotella’s previous career high was 189. Essentially, this is uncharted waters for the New Orleans native.
While it seems like this start might not be sustainable simply because it is so far above what he’s done in his career, a few metrics say it might continue. Seeing as this is only the third season Giavotella has played where he’s seen at least 100 plate appearances, we’ll have to use that as a baseline since that’s a larger sample size than most of his career lends itself to being. In those three seasons, this current season is the one with his highest walk rate and lowest strikeout rate. It’s also the one with, by far, his highest line drive rate (25.1 percent). He’s also hitting the ball on the ground more than he has in the other two seasons, which allows him to use his passable speed more than if he were to hit fly balls.
There are also a few other factors. He swings at pitches out of the zone only 26.2 percent of the time. Players like Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Matt Holliday swing at a higher percentage of pitches out of the zone than Giavotella does. That works in his favor. He doesn’t chase that often. Of the 166 qualified players, Giavotella sits with the 44th lowest out-of-zone swing percentage. Another thing that views him favorably is that he makes contact on 90.9 percent of the pitches he swings at that are inside the strike zone. That’s the 47th highest mark in baseball. For reference, Adam Jones (91.0 percent) and Matt Carpenter (91.1 percent) are directly above him.
Giavotella possesses a good eye, a functional approach, and makes sound contact on pitches he swings at. Combined with the fact that he’s 27 years old, and turns 28 a month from now, we can start to sense that perhaps this is actually something the peewee middle infielder can keep up. Perhaps not to the same degree since he’s OPS’ing nearly .800 with runners in scoring position and 1.094 in “late and close” situations, but close to it. However, he’s been doing well for two months now. The trade has certainly paid off. He will hit a rough spell but he should be able to bounce back from it due to his consistent playing time, at-bats, and approach.
It’s hard to say what Johnny Giavotella does from here. But all the evidence points to this being sustainable for, at least, the time being. And the Angels need it to be sustainable because he has actually been their fourth best offensive player (minimum 100 plate appearances) thus far this season. For now, enjoy what Giavotella has been able to produce and hope that he can keep it up. The numbers say it’s possible but numbers can also lie sometimes. The 5’8″ second baseman has finally gotten major playing time and has produced like he earned it. So far, he has.
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