Jake Lamb, Arizona Diamondbacks
It’s the dawn of a new era in the desert since Paul Goldschmidt won’t be manning first base on Opening Day. Goldy’s departure allows Jake Lamb to move across the diamond from third base to first base, letting Eduardo Escobar slide into the hot corner on an every-day basis.
This will be an interesting transition for Lamb, who has only played 29 total innings at first in the big leagues, all of which came in 2015. He did post five Defensive Runs Saved at third in 464.1 innings during 2018, but combined for -21 DRS in more than 2,300 innings the two seasons prior to that.
Oh, and as he’s getting used to a new position, Lamb will have to get back into the swing of things after an abbreviated campaign. Shoulder issues led to multiple disabled-list stints while suiting up for just 56 games (238 plate appearances). After launching 59 home runs between 2016-17, he hit six in 2018 to go along with a .222/.307/.348 triple slash. That led to a disappointing 78 wRC+ and 0.3 fWAR.
Lamb did post a 42.5% hard-hit rate last season, but it was accompanied by a 51.4% ground-ball rate and 30.8% fly-ball rate. This was on the heels of posting one of the lowest ground-ball rates (41.1%) and the highest fly-ball rate (38.3%) of his career in ’17.
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