It’s been clear for a while now that the Red Sox are going to do their due diligence on isolating who their backup infielder will be. With news that the Red Sox are interested in signing Rocco Baldelli but have concerns enough about his durability that they would need a more versatile option behind him, With the news that Chris Burke is going to be non-tendered tonight, he immediately becomes the top option, in my opinion, to fill that spot.
Willie Bloomquist is decent, but Chris Burke is the man I want.
Burke will enter his age-29 season and had a poor year for the Diamondbacks after being shipped from the Astros west for Jose Valverde, amongst others. Burke hit a sad .194/.310/.273 in 165 AB for the D’Backs, but has a career line of .241/.318/.363 and in 2006 hit .276/.347/.418.
He can play virtually anywhere. Here’s the breakdown of the positions he has played in his career and the number of games at each position, in addition to his UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating). UZR “represents the value of a fielder’s performance expressed as runs saved or cost, in comparison to an average fielder (actually in comparison to the mean performance of all fielders) at that position, in that player’s league, and during that particular year.”
1B — 9 G, -9.4 UZR
2B — 170, 10
3B — 4, -53.6 (small sample size alert!)
SS — 17, 0.8
LF — 123, 21.9
CF — 70, -27.2
RF — 36, -16.9
If we sign Rocco Baldelli to be our fourth option, we can bring in Chris Burke to be our primary backup infielder (or secondary, if Julio Lugo is retained, and there are worse things than that) and who can also pitch in in the outfield if needed.
What do you think? Is Chris Burke a good addition?
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