Daniel Nava is a professional baseball player who is signed to a contract to play for the Los Angeles Angels in 2016. Bu the reality of Daniel Nava is that he is much more than that. Daniel Nava is a metaphor. Angels fans were dying for Arte Moreno to give Billy Eppler the go-ahead to go out and find an outfielder that would help all of us forget the colossal failure that was Matt Joyce, and the craziness that was letting Collin Cowgill receive more than a few pity at-bats and starting assignments.
Basically, Daniel Nava is the giant gift under the Christmas tree. The giant present that you open up to find a smaller box inside, which holds another box, then another, and then another. He is the pair of flip flops in the last box that you get to after 30 minutes of wrapping paper and assorted types of corrugated cardboard. The gag gift that your parents thought would be hilarious, but instead led to years and years of resentment that culminated in pent up adolescent rage manifesting in the form of a pink mohawk, a spiked leather jacket and an addiction to cigarettes at the age of fourteen. Thanks, Arte, you’re going to give everyone cancer. Stick that feather in your Guinness Book of World Records hat.
Position: OF/1B | Age (2016): 33
Bats: S | Throws: L
Height: 5’11” | Weight: 200
2015 WAR: 0.0
2015 in a Tweet
Nava appeared in 60 games last year for the Rays and Red Sox and managed a wRC+ of 64. Now there’s a good chance he could be a starting left fielder in 2016. For the Angels. Sigh.
2016 Projections
[table id=165 /]The amalgam of left fielders that Angels employed last year turned out a whopping -1.5 fWAR. Obviously, the biggest reason for that craptastic performance was Joyce, but David DeJesus was arguably worse, posting an fWAR of -0.7 in 30 games. Enter Daniel Nava. Steamer is projecting a slash line of .241/.321/.347 with an fWAR of 0.2, PECOTA is projecting .257/.331/.363 with a WARP of 1.2. Both of which, going off of Nava’s production from last year, seem incredibly generous. However, it is not as if Nava has never been a productive player before.
After two years of being kicked around by the Red Sox, Nava appeared in 134 games in 2013. He finished the season with an fWAR of 1.7 and a slash line of .303/.385/.445. Boy, wouldn’t that have looked good in the Angels outfield in 2015. Of course, he was atrocious on defense. In 2013 he was worth -18.4 defensive runs above average. The following season Nava appeared in 113 games, slashing .270/.346/.361 and posting an fWAR of 2.6. He was also worth 20 runs better on defense than he was the year before.
What I am trying to get at is, the Nava signing might not stink as bad we all think it does. He’s not Alex Gordon, that’s for sure, and he is coming into his age-33 season, so that’s not exactly confidence inspiring either. But he’s also not too far removed from being a serviceable player that not only remembers to bring a bat to the plate (I’m looking at you, Matt Joyce), but is also an average-at-worst defender with the ability to be an above-average defender alongside Mike Trout. The projections may be a little bearish on Nava in my opinion. It’s possible that he could surprise us all. It is also possible that we will be throwing our remotes at our TVs by May whenever he comes to the plate. This could go either way.
Spray Chart
The thing that made Nava so good in 2013 was his line drive rate. For his career it sits at 22.2%, but in 2013 it was at 26.1%, all of which came from not beating baseballs into the infield grass. Of course, that didn’t last forever, but his ability to spray the ball to all fields still remains.
Now, you would think that that was a byproduct of being a switch hitter, but you would be wrong. Nava only had 20 at bats from the right side in 2015, and only 63 at bats from the right side in 2014. His career wRC+ split has him posting a 119 from the left side of the plate, and a 61 from the right side. He is strictly platoon material, and if Mike Scioscia plays his cards right he will only allow Nava to swing the bat as a lefty, and will be forced to watch videos of Mike Napoli assaulting Angels pitchers if he violates that common sense idea.
Zone Profile
One of the best parts about being a hitter who can hit the ball to all fields is that there aren’t too many places that you can pitch that hitter without it being a spot where they can make solid contact. Of course, when a hitter has a bad year, it seems like either every spot in the zone is weak spot, or that they are swinging a bat made out of swiss cheese. Daniel Nava still does a good job of covering the outside pitch as well as pitches down in the zone, but he is going to have to be consistent this season if he hopes to avoid the curse of the Angels left fielder that has hung over the stadium for the past few years.
Fun Fact
In 2010, Daniel Nava left an extra ticket at the box-office window for every one of his minor league home games. The person he left the ticket for…was Erin Andrews. Seems Nava had himself a crush on a big-time sportscaster. Of course, it may have helped if she knew, unless he was simply hoping for some kind of romantic comedy storyline to tell his grandchildren about.
What to Watch For
Daniel Nava is at his absolute best when he is spraying line drives all over the field. When he starts beating the ball into the ground, that’s when there is a problem at the plate.
A Bold Prediction
Daniel Nava won’t be the left fielder that Angels fans want, but he will be better than what Angels fans got in 2015. That may or may not be what you, the reader, wanted to read, but that’s the reality. Daniel Nava isn’t a terrible player, but he’s not a star. And to be valuable, he just needs to be better than replacement level.
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