Otto Lopez
One of my favorite parts about baseball is that player skillsets can vary so wildly while producing a similar amount of value. In 2024, Michael Toglia and Otto Lopez were both worth between two and three wins (by bWAR), but the shapes of their productions looked nothing alike. While Toglia relied on homers and free passes, Lopez helped the Marlins as a high-contact defensive whiz.
After getting small cups of coffee over three seasons with Toronto — including a one-plate appearance debut in 2021 and a call-up with no actual appearances in 2023 — Lopez was practically given away twice. The Marlins picked him up a week into the 2024 season off waivers from the Giants, who had purchased his rights from Toronto a couple of months earlier.
Initially getting spare playing time as a utility infielder and late-game replacement, he slipped his name into the lineup card more frequently after Luis Arraez was dealt to San Diego in early May. After the Marlins’ complete sell-off at the Trade Deadline, he used the opportunity given to him to become a clear piece of their future.
Lopez’s calling card is his defense, so I’ll start there. First, a note that I couldn’t break down fielding stats by month due to a faulty function in the baseballr package I use (a ticket has been submitted to get this fixed). Therefore the LASR fielding stats shown are full-season data. I’m reluctantly okay with that for now, since fielding stats don’t generally oscillate as much as batting stats.
Anyway, Otto Lopez is an excellent defender. He ranked above-average by all measures, with fantastic FRV and OAA LASR scores of 70. In the raw values, he ranked third among all second basemen in those stats. When considering he played about 500 less innings than the top two and wasn’t far behind either of them, it’s not that hot of a take to say Lopez is currently the best defensive second baseman in MLB, or at least belongs in the conversation.
That is incredibly valuable in itself and gives his future a high floor, but he’s also a capable offensive contributor. He doesn’t offer much power, but he put up a 65 AVG LASR over 2024’s last two months that will get old-school fans’ heads turning if he can sustain it. Part of that was an above-average ability to avoid strikeouts, while he also got a sizable boost from a high BABIP.
Of course, that could mean he’s due for regression, but being a speedy, right-handed groundball hitter gives him a good chance to maintain a relatively high BABIP. He showed this potential by beating out lots of infield hits, with an IFH% LASR of 65. That is a stat to be careful with, as it often requires a larger sample size than what we’re working with to judge, but his profile suggests that skill is legitimate.
After Miami’s disappointing showing last year, a significant coaching turnover was made and this new direction for the organization could lead to drastic changes in playing style. Whether this will impact Lopez is yet to be seen, but he is already on the right track to complete his transformation from a fringe utility player to the Marlins’ second baseman of the future.