Nobody Should Win The Shortstop Battle

Position battles are the hottest thing in Major League Baseball, now that Will Ferrell’s career has already begun and ended. They’re the main attraction in Seattle Mariners camp, particularly the war being waged over the starting shortstop job. That’s a spring battle with pretty serious regular season implications.

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The competitors: Brad Miller and Chris Taylor. There’s no clear favorite between the two, and there’s good reason for that. They’re both strong in the field, though Taylor probably has the slightest of edges. They’re both roughly average at the plate, though Miller is thought to be a hair better. Miller is 25. Taylor is 24. Both have options left, and one of them is destined to open the year in AAA.

With such evenly-matched competitors, it only makes sense to have an open competition for the shortstop spot. They were both contributors in 2014, and both appear poised to contribute in 2015. But with only one spot available, might as well make them duke it out and annoint the spring training champ the opening day shortstop.

Except that so far in camp they’ve both looked equally outstanding. Taylor’s got a .421/.450/.842 line, while Miller comes in at .400/.438/.933. Both players have been hitting the crap out of the baseball, as you’d expect from talented players fighting for a job. Which begs the question: why exactly are they fighting for a job in the first place?

The Mariners currently have Willie Bloomquist as their utility guy/25th man, though we’ve made the case that his roster spot should absolutely not be guaranteed. Last time this subject was discussed I suggested that someone like Shawn O’Malley or Patrick Kivlehan should be given the chance to win this last roster spot. But why not just forego that spot and keep both shortstops on the active roster?

The 2015 Mariners should be trying to win as many games as possible, as discussed here yesterday. This is the year they’ve been building towards for years. The best way to win games is to have as many good players as usual. There’s no rule saying the 25th man has to suck. What if he was really good? What if he was Brad Miller, or Chris Taylor?

ZiPS has Miller as a 2.2 WAR player in 2015, with Taylor projects for 2.3 wins of his own. Bloomquist comes in at zero. That’s zero, as in exactly replacement level. That’s the guy who the team wants to for sure give a roster spot at the expense of a player who projects to be above average?

Think back to Miller’s early-season struggles a year ago. Shouldn’t the team have learned from this? How nice would it have been if Taylor had been around to pick up some of the slack when Miller was having a rough go of it last year? Wasn’t it just the greatest thing when he was called up and started splitting time with Miller, who by then had begun to heat up? Why forego that for the sake of Willie Bloomquist?

Rickie Weeks is the utility guy now. He’s going to spell the infielders while taking regular reps in the outfield. There’s zero need for Bloomquist, which means there’s enough room for a starting-caliber shortstop on the bench. Sending one of these guys to the minors to play every day does nothing to help the 2015 team win, and really isn’t the developmental necessity it’s said to be. Remember how both these guys were on the roster in the second half last year? Remember how that worked out really well for all involved parties?

Nobody should win the shortstop battle. The shortstop battle is dumb. Brad Miller and Chris Taylor project as two of the best players on the 2015 Mariners. The team should take advantage of this strength by sticking both guys on the roster and finding the plate appearances needed for them to make meaningful contributions. If this was 2011 you’d for sure stick one of the two in the minors. But this is a team built for the World Series. Teams like this shouldn’t sacrifice any on-field value.

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