The Pittsburgh Pirates had a disappointing 2016 season. As the off-season begins, it is time to grade out the club. Today we grade out John Jaso.
When the decision was made in the offseason to non-tender Pedro Alvarez, the Pittsburgh Pirates went out and signed John Jaso as their everyday first baseman.
The move wasn’t a popular one amongst Pirates fans as on paper it looked like another cheap move by the Pirates front office. On the field, going with another guy who was making a transition to a position he had never played before was met with some skepticism.
But the Jaso experiment got off to a very good start in 2016.
Unfortunately for himself and the Pirates, it didn’t quite finish that way.
Career Highs Give Way to the Dog Days
Jaso, who Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle batted at the top of the order for most of the season, set career highs in plate appearances (432), hits (102), runs (45) and doubles (25).
He also made the Pirates front office look smart by posting a .316/.389/.456 slash line coming out of the gate in April. Jaso followed that up with a productive month of May as well, posting a .293/.348/.427 line.
Then things got very ugly.
The month of June saw Jaso post just a .197/.313/.296 line. July wasn’t much better as Jaso slashed just .200/.262/.250. Hurdle stuck with him though and despite his struggles, kept penciling Jaso in at the top of the order, but Jaso kept struggling. He quickly became one of the whipping boys for many of the Pirates struggles, mostly because while Jaso failed, prized prospect Josh Bell was kept in the minors.
Jaso picked things up a bit, slashing .314/.455/.544 in August, where he was limited to just 44 plate appearances. He finished September with a .302/.383/.604 line in 60 plate appearances.
A Fine Transition, but That Is About It.
On the season Jaso posted a .268/.353/.413 mark with eight homers and 42 RBI. Needless to say that wasn’t good enough from the Pirates every day first baseman.
Coming into the season the Pirates were hoping for an OBP around the .380 mark, knowing there wouldn’t be much power coming from Jaso. Not getting that really was a punch in the gut for the Pittsburgh Pirates, knowing that they needed Jaso to be successful so they could be patient calling Bell up to the majors. But his bat never really played like the club was hoping.
[irp posts=”10438″ name=”Pittsburgh Pirates 2016 Gradeout – Gregory Polanco”]One semi-positive aspect was that Jaso transitioned to first base rather smoothly, making only five errors on the season. Jaso’s walk percentage was down from 13.0 percent last year to 10.4 percent this season. In addition, all he did was beat the ball into the ground. His ground ball percentage was a staggering 52.7 percent while his line drive percentage was only at 21.6.
Other outliers such as a .145 ISO (down from .175), .314 BABIP (down from .336) and a 0.7 WAR made the 2016 season look like a bad one from Jaso.
Conclusion and Final Grade
I wrote prior to the season that the Jaso signing would have been good for the Pirates as their 23rd or 24th guy on the roster. Asking him to play mostly every day was going to be a problem and it turned out to be. While it is impossible to ignore Jaso’s production in the season’s early months, it is equally impossible to ignore how bad he was for the rest of it. The ups and downs leave him with a C- grade for 2016.
What Grade would you give Jaso?
Agree with our grade? Disagree? Cast your vote below to let your voice be heard!
What grade would YOU give John Jaso for his 2016 season?
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) October 12, 2016
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