MLB: The game’s most valuable second basemen
By Bill Felber
MLB’s most valuable 2B of 2019
10. Adam Frazier, Pittsburgh Pirates, $5.972 million value; $584,000 salary
Frazier completed his first full season as the Pirates’ starter at second and was one of the franchises few bright spots. He delivered a .278 batting average supported by 33 doubles.
Offensively, there is room for improvement. Frazier’s 2.7 WAR was 13th best among the 35 second basemen who were considered, equating to $2.878 million in return.
Frazier’s strength to this point in his career is his reliability. He posted a .989 fielding percentage that was sufficiently above the group average to rank eighth overall and to value out at $980,000. His 4.18 chances per nine innings were also above average, but that fact is tempered by its ranking of only 16th among the group. Getting to a lot of balls is apparently a common trait among middle infielders.
It equated to $1.238 million in value.
He played 1,181 innings, 11th best at the position, with an $877,000 value.
Four rankings, all of them between eighth and 16th, explains Frazier’s 10th place rating overall.
The Pirates do need Frazier to continue his progress. He is never likely to develop into a power threat, which means he must hone his skills at getting on base and then maximizing his value at the running game. Frazier attempted to steal only 10 bases last season and succeeded only five times. His .336 on-base average was adequate but not good enough for a non-power threat to approach star status.