One of the most under-appreciated positions a major league baseball team can have is the utility man. This player can play most of the positions on the infield and the outfield, and he fills in whenever a regular starter has an injury or needs a day off. The utility man doesn’t always get regular playing time or daily at-bats, but he sees enough time in the field and at the plate that he might as well be the 10th starter.
The Pittsburgh Pirates had the ideal utility player in 2014 with Josh Harrison. That season, Harrison accrued 5.3 wins above replacement (according to ESPN) and played games at second base, shortstop, third base, left field, and right field, essentially, all of the positions you’d like a utility player to be able to field. He also batted in every position in the batting order except for fourth and eighth, and he batted over .300 against both righties and lefties. 2014 truly was a banner year for Harrison and one where he did everything above-average that you could ask of him.
But with a breakout year as a former bench player, Harrison’s time as a full-time utility player soon came to an end. He went into 2015 as the starting third basemen, and injuries, coupled with a slow offensive start and some defensive woes, led to a drop-off in WAR to 1.7; even without using WAR to evaluate his performance, one could tell that Harrison had a down year compared to 2014.
As of now, it looks like Harrison will go into 2016 as the team’s starting second baseman with the departure of Neil Walker. But is that the ideal role for Harrison with this team? After all, Harrison performed better in 2014 when he wasn’t relied upon every day.
In an ideal world, Harrison is best used as a super-utility player. Not many teams have the luxury of this type of player, but having a dynamic player off the bench that is better than many starting position players around the league is a deadly weapon. He’d be a threat off the bench to pinch-hit in late-game situations, and he’d be an above-average defensive replacement when the Pirates would be trying to protect a lead. His speed also makes him a good pinch-running candidate. In this ideal world, Alen Hanson would be ready to take over at second base full-time at some point in 2016, and Harrison would be okay with his role off the bench. After all, he was already rewarded with a big-money contract at the beginning of last season, and he still has time to earn one more big contract in his career.
The Royals showed last year how important a super-utility player can be. Ben Zobrist has made a career of that role, and it earned him a four-year deal at the age of 34 with the Cubs, which not many players get. But six consecutive seasons of putting up greater than four WAR as primarily a utility player will earn you that. Harrison could follow this trajectory and make a career of that role.
But having an above-average super-utility player is a luxury not many teams can afford, especially the small market Pirates. But that could be changing in the coming year. If Hanson and Josh Bell are ready to take over in the infield at some point, that would only lower the Pirates’ team payroll, which would make Harrison as an expensive bench player all the more doable. Add Tyler Glasnow and Jameson Taillon as cheap rotation pieces, and the Pirates will have plenty of money to spend in the coming years. This could also allow the team to try to set up a dynamic bullpen with multiple high-velocity closer-types at the back-end, even if that costs some money as well.
We see how big market teams continue to move away from the small market teams in terms of spending. The Dodgers and Red Sox were able to lock down big-name pitchers in part because of opt-out clauses. The Pirates can’t go down this road, and the opt-out only allows the big market teams to add even more big-money players to their teams. The Pirates have to continue to stay ahead of the curve to try to compete, and using Josh Harrison as a super-utility player is one way to do that.
Is this the ideal role for Harrison in Harrison’s eyes? Probably not. He certainly earned the right to be a starter after his 2014 campaign. But it may be the ideal spot for him from the team’s perspective. I still expect Harrison to start at second base for the Pittsburgh Pirates at the start of 2016, but hopefully Neal Huntington and the rest of the front office see the potential of having a dynamic bench piece like they had in 2014.
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