MLB’s most valuable 2B of 2019
7. Jonathan Villar, Baltimore Orioles, $7.559 million value, $4.825 million salary
You won’t see many teams with two players ranking so high at the same position. That the Orioles should be the distinctive team may seem even more incongruous.
The uniqueness of both Villar and Alberto ranking among the best at second base is founded on two things. The first is the quality of their 2019 seasons. The second is the fact that both split time at various positions and both happened to land most frequently at second.
In the case of Villar, the split involved the 658 innings he played at shortstop atop the 733 he put in at second…most of it when Alberto was over at third. In fact, Villar appeared in every game in 2019, a distinction only Marcus Semien, Jorge Soler, Whit Merrifield, and Starlin Castro could match.
Villar delivered one of the best seasons of his career, including a personal best 24 home runs and 73 RBIs. His 4.0 WAR was sixth-best at the position, equating to $4.26 million in value.
Like Altuve, Villar’s rating was dragged down by an indifferent .978 fielding percentage that ranked only 24th. In his case, that rating was based on errors. In defense of t4he statistic, it’s worth noting that Villar was even worse at shortstop, where his .957 average included another dozen errors.
He did show good range, accepting 4.37 chances every nine innings. That was sixth-best and justified nearly $1.3 million. Between his time at second and short. Villar played 1,391 innings, the third most of anybody whose predominant position was second base.
The trade to Miami leaves open the question of how Villar will fit in during 2020. The Marlins currently list him as the front-runner at third base, although he has not played an inning at that base since 2016, and never as a regular.