Here's an interesting article on Zobrist for the metric heads..........
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Cubs Add Ben Zobrist. Was It A Good Idea?
Yesterday was a big day for the
Cubs. Rather, yesterday was a
huge day for the Cubs. I don't need to recap the deals for you all, but I will anyway: within about an hour of each other, the Cubs signed
Ben Zobrist to a four-year, $56 million deal and then traded
Starlin Castro to the
Yankees for
Adam Warren and
Brendan Ryan.
It's difficult to separate these moves given the position's of Zobrist and Castro and given that proximity of the moves to each other.
However, Castro was an asset independent of Zobrist and Zobrist's acquisition was its own move. In this piece, I'm just going to look at Zobrist.
So what exactly did the Cubs buy? And was it a good idea or not?
To put it mildly, Ben Zobrist has had an unconventional career path. He was selected in the sixth round (184th overall) by the
Astros in the 2004 draft out of Dallas Baptist, and he zoomed through the Houston system on the strength of elite on-base skills: Zobrist had a .429 career minor league on-base percentage. The switch-hitter was dealt to Tampa Bay in a 2006 trade deadline deal that sent
Aubrey Huff to the Astros.
Zobrist's Major League career got off to a rocky start as he posted -1.9 fWAR through his age-26 season in 2007. But the something clicked for Zobrist in 2008 as he posted 1.5 fWAR over a 62-game sample before producing one of baseball's great breakout seasons. In 2009, at age 28 and with a career fWAR of -0.4 to date, Zobrist erupted to top all of Major League Baseball with 8.6 fWAR as he provided elite value both with his glove and bat. Zobrist returned to earth with a strong 3.8 fWAR in 2010 before ripping off four straight years with at least 5 fWAR from 2011-14.
Zobrist was dealt to Oakland last winter, and he struggled mightily through his first two months with the
Athletics, dragged down by a torn meniscus which eventually required late April surgery. Zobrist scuffled for about a week upon his return, but then he returned to form in June and didn't look back as the career .265/.355/.431 hitter posted a sizzling .282/.369/.461 line over the season's final four months primarily spent with the
Royals. Zobrist was even better in October as his .303/.365/.515 tally paced the Royals in their pursuit of a championship.
Zobrist has long been known for his defense as he has consistently produced excellent value both at second base and in the corner outfield spots. 2015 proved to be a truly alarming aberration as his range seemingly evaporated. It remains to be seen to what extent this may have been driven by his knee injury.
Even with the defensive struggles in 2015 -- at least according to the metrics -- the player described above would normally command something in the neighborhood of $20 million per year on a deal cover six or more seasons. However, Ben Zobrist comes with one major drawback: he turns 35 in May.
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