Is Yunel Ready?

Written by Colin on January 21, 2008 – 10:52 am

I get this question a lot when discussing the NL East with other NL East fans - Is Yunel Escobar ready to start at shortstop?  We all know the Braves think so - they traded Edgar Renteria away to start the off-season.  So is Yunel going to perform at a major league level?

Well only time can tell us for sure, but I see limited reason to worry about him.  Why?  To start, he has the confidence of not only the Braves front office, but his coaches and teammates. After coming up in June and watching his steady contribution to the team - including the 18 game stretch Edgar Renteria was injured near the end of the season - his teammates have nothing but good things to say about his play.  Teixeira praised him as a great competitor and as a player who would be good at filling in Renteria’s shoes.  Terry Pendleton praised him as “a player” and “special.”

But let’s look beyond the praise garnered by Escobar from his teammates.  Since coming up in June, Escobar posted a .326 BA, 5 HRs, a .385 OBP, and a .451 SLG%.  He was 20-60 with runners in scoring position (.333).  In August, when he played during Renteria’s absence, he hit .352.  Yeah, you say that all rookies hit well when they first come up because nobody has scouted them.  But Escobar hit strongly and consistently through the end of the season after coming up towards the beginning of the season in June.  Offensively, I think he’ll continue to improve as a strong young hitter.

Defensively the guy has range.  Some say he has more range than Renteria did - the guy has speed for sure.  In 53 games at shortstop, he had a fielding percentage of .977 fielding percentage - in fact equal to Renteria’s fielding percentage in 121 games.

I think the X-Factor for this guy is his enthusiasm.  Anyone who saw him play saw his enthusiasm - always running, always grinning.  Jumping as high as he could before his at-bats and obviously enjoying himself.

Yunel is ready for a full-time job.  I think he’ll prove himself as a speedy shortstop who loves the game and plays his heart out.  Worst case, he gets injured and we bring some young guy named Brent Lillibridge.

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