As the calendar gets ready to flip to July, several Pittsburgh Pirates will be happy that the month of June is in the books.
Perhaps no Pittsburgh Pirates player is happier to see the calendar flip than first baseman John Jaso.
When the Pirates allowed Pedro Alvarez to walk in the offseason, the plan of platooning a pair of players in Jaso and David Freese, neither of which had played the position prior, was met with some question marks. Three months into the 2016 season, it is clear that the platoon isn’t working out as planned.
Peaks and Valleys for Jaso
On the surface, the first base platoon hasn’t been all that bad. Jaso sits with a slash line of .272/.351/.397 with four homers and 22 RBI while Freese sits at .287/.361/.448. He has added a bit more punch to the lineup with seven blasts and 32 RBI. Granted, some of Freese’s overall production has come while playing third base, but for this purpose I will just look at the two players overall contributions.
Combined the duo has slashed .279/.354/.422 with 11 homers and 54 RBI.
Looking around the league, that isn’t terrible production. However, dig a little deeper and you see where the problems arise. Freese has been steady, but Jaso has been anything but.
The focus coming into the season was one of getting on base and it made some sense bringing in Jaso, who has a career .360 OBP and is coming off a season in which he posted a .380 mark in Tampa. Prior to having a down 2014 campaign in Oakland where he posted a .337 mark, Jaso had OBP’s of .387 in 2013 in Oakland and .394 in 2012 in Seattle.
Judging by career history it made sense to sign Jaso and bat him at the top of the order. Out of the gate, Pirates general manager looked smart as Jaso finished April with a slash line of .316/.389/.456.
However, things haven’t been so rosy for Jaso since then. His numbers have been on a steady decline, posting a .293/.348/.427 line in May before a miserable June that sees him with a .197/.313/.296 line.
Identifying Jaso’s Issues
Dive into Jaso’s numbers and there are a pair of alarming trends, the first of which deals with his ground ball percentage.
After back-to-back seasons in 2013 and 2014 that saw Jaso hit the ball on the ground just 40.1 and 36.5 percent of the time, that number jumped to a career worst 52.7 percent last season. General Manager Neal Huntington likely thought that was an abnormality, given the fact that Jaso boasted a .380 OBP. However, that number hasn’t come back down as this season Jaso has a ground ball percentage of 59.5, which is well above his career 45.9 percent mark.
Quite simply that isn’t getting the job done.
If we need more proof that Jaso is a player trending in the wrong direction, we should look no further than his batted ball percentages.
Last season Jaso probably made the best contact of his career, as 37.8 percent of the contact he made was considered hard contact. That’s the player the Pirates were hoping they would get: a guy who got on base a lot and hit the ball hard into the gaps. It hasn’t worked out that way as Jaso has just hit 24.0 percent of his batted ball hard, which is more in line with his 27.4 percent career number.
Sadly, this appears to be the player the Pittsburgh Pirates have. A guy who beats the ball into the ground a ton. A guy who doesn’t hit the ball hard often and a guy who isn’t getting on base at nearly the rate the organization expected.
Questions Remain
The first of which is how long can manager Clint Hurdle continue to bat Jaso at the top of the order?
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”#000000″ size=””]Dive into Jaso’s numbers and there are a pair of alarming trends, the first of which deals with his ground ball percentage.[/perfectpullquote]It made sense at the beginning of the season, based on career marks, but it makes very little sense now. Constructing a lineup based on putting guys that get on base often at the top of the order is fine, but Hurdle shouldn’t have that written in stone. He needs to adjust things based on the type of seasons players are having.
Secondly, how long can the Pirates realistically hold Josh Bell down in Triple-A while Jaso continues to falter at the plate?
It will likely be a lot longer than pretty much everyone is hoping for as Bell isn’t likely to be brought up any time soon.
But it is clear that Jaso can only help this team to a certain degree. Even with rough edges, it is clear that Bell can produce at a much higher clip than what we have seen at first base already.
Going into the season, many felt that Jaso would be exposed having to play nearly every day. That has happened, and the Pittsburgh Pirates first base platoon seriously needs to be looked at.
Whether it’s a promotion for the highly touted Bell or finding help elsewhere, the Pittsburgh Pirates simply can’t afford to see Jaso struggle at the top of the order for too much longer.
He’s trending in the wrong direction, and the team cannot afford to wait for him to figure it out.
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