Today, Billy Beane once again shows us how he can turn around and make some very good moves, as he has acquired veteran setup man Tyler Clippard for newly acquired shortstop Yunel Escobar. First reported on Twitter by CBS writer Jon Heyman, the trade comes only five days after the A’s acquired Ben Zobrist and Yunel Escobar from the Tampa Bay Rays.
This trade likely means that Danny Espinosa, the second baseman for the Nationals last year, will be moved back to the bench, and Escobar will handle second with Anthony Rendon taking third base and Ryan Zimmerman taking first.
Tyler Clippard was once a top prospect for the New York Yankees but failed to deliver as a starter. In 2008, he was signed by the Nationals and has since become one of baseball’s best back of the pen man and even filling in as closer from time to time. At the ripe old age of 29, Clippard has already tallied some impressive numbers as a relief pitcher. Clippard owns a career WHIP of 1.08, allowing opposing hitters to a career .188 batting average. He’s just as effective at facing left handed batters, holding them to a wOBA of only .264, as he is against right handed batters who only has a wOBA of .279 against him.
Clippard's biggest strength is the punch out, and he does it quite often. In the last five seasons, Clippard has only dipped below a K/9 rate of 10 strike outs per nine, only one time where he had a 9.25. Clippard ended 2014 with an ERA of 2.18 and a FIP of 2.75, finishing with 40 Holds.
Yunel Escobar was once thought of as a top shortstop prospect for the Atlanta Braves but over the years, he’s slipped from the .290 hitter he was looking like to a .250 hitter, with little power. Escobar’s biggest weakness seems to be his inability to make solid contact, since his career walk rate of 8.9 percent is actually decent in this day and age, but more importantly his strikeout rate is at only 11.3 percent for his career.
Another interesting factor to consider is the fact that Escobar's speed is not very impressive to start with, as he has been slowly degrading over his career. This is to be expected from a 32-year-old shortstop, but his speed may be another reason his numbers have taken such a sharp dive. His BABIP has fallen from his early career average of .311 to only averaging around a .280, and two factors that play a big part of BABIP is speed and quality of hits.
Escobar's ISO is very low at only .105, but that was never his strength anyway, so it's highly unlikely that, at this stage of his career, he’s going to all of a sudden develop some. Escobar’s biggest strength has always been his defense and up until last year, it really was quite good.
In his eight-year career, Escobar has only dropped below a defensive WAR of 6.0 three times, one of those years just happened to have been 2014 where he had his worst season by far in defensive WAR at a -11.0. The numbers don’t see this as a new Escobar, but that doesn’t mean his defense will rise back up to elite status, but a move to second base could help.
Bottom line is that Escobar may not be as good as we had thought, but there is some signs that he may actually just be a good hitting coach away from being that .290 hitter again. After all, he is only 32 years old.
The last thing to note in this trade is the timing of it and the recent talks between the Nationals and Seattle Mariners. Back in December, Jim Bowden of ESPN posted on his Twitter that the Nats and Mariners were working on a deal that would send Ian Desmond to the Mariners, and this came a day after the team announced that they’ve made no significant extension talks with Desmond. It may be a stretch to think the team is bracing for a Desmond departure, but the signs are there, and if the team does find the right deal, they could easily move Escobar from second to shortstop once again.
