Invoice Streicher-IMages Photos
I made a baseball card. Don’t fear about my grade-school-level graphic design expertise. It’s not like I’m attempting to promote this template to Topps. I simply figured that if I used to be going to make use of the “guess the thriller participant” lead-in, I’d as nicely attempt to make it a bit extra visually interesting. So, I made a baseball card. And I’d such as you to attempt to guess the participant to whom it belongs:
It’s not Dansby Swanson. It’s not Marcus seeds in an even-numbered 12 months. However these are in all probability the 2 greatest guesses you could possibly make with out further context (such because the headline, however humor me right here), which is exactly why I needed to play this recreation – and write this text. Right here’s how 2024 Swanson and 2024 Semien stack as much as my thriller participant. Be mindful, the time-frame for the thriller participant’s stats is one other a part of the thriller:
Guess the Thriller Participant
Participant
PA
HR
XBH
wRC+
SB
OAA
WAR
2024 Dansby Swanson
593
16
45
99
19
18
4.3
2024 Marcus Semien
718
23
52
99
8
19
4.2
Thriller Participant
649
19
64
108
14
13
4.7
Swanson is a two-time All-Star and a two-time Gold Glove winner. He made $26 million final season. Semien is a three-time All-Star, a two-time Silver Slugger, and a Gold Glove winner. He additionally made $26 million final season. This thriller participant have to be fairly good, huh?
Only for enjoyable, I’d like to supply up yet another comparability earlier than I transfer on from this rhetorical recreation. Right here’s how the thriller participant stacks as much as one other extremely paid All-Star center infielder, Trea Turner:
Guess the Thriller Participant
Participant
PA
HR
XBH
wRC+
SB
OAA
WAR
2023 Trea Turner
691
26
66
108
30
-5
4.2
2024 Trea Turner
539
21
46
124
19
-3
3.9
Thriller Participant
649
19
64
108
14
13
4.7
This mysterious stat line, the one which compares so favorably to the latest numbers of Swanson, Semien, and Turner, belongs to none aside from utilityman Edmundo Sosa. The numbers on the baseball card I made are his profession stats as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies:
Sosa, now 29, signed with the Cardinals as a world free agent out of Panama in 2012. Though he was by no means a top-top prospect, he regarded like a high-probability main leaguer from a younger age, because of his sure-handed protection at shortstop and a stronger bat than one sometimes sees from such a succesful fielder. He ranked someplace between seventh and sixteenth on our Cardinals prospect lists annually from 2016-21. As a rookie, Sosa took 326 journeys to the plate within the 2021 season, producing a .735 OPS and a 102 wRC+. Splitting his time between shortstop (518 innings) and second base (138 2/3 innings) with a handful of video games at third base sprinkled in (31 1/3 innings), he put up 5 OAA and 11 DRS. Altogether, he completed with 2.0 WAR, sixth most amongst NL rookies. Prorated over a whole season, that’s a four-win marketing campaign.
But, St. Louis quickly appeared to bitter on Sosa after his gradual begin the following season. (Alliteration is enjoyable!) On July 30, 2022, when he had a 47 wRC+ in 53 video games, the Cardinals traded him to the Phillies in change for left-handed reliever JOJO ROMERO. On the time, it appeared like a superbly simple swap of low-impact role-players: a southpaw center reliever for a glove-first utilityman.
Two years, eight months, and 5 days later, Sosa has racked up a full season’s value of plate appearances with the Phillies. The product of that enjoying time? An All-Star-caliber quasi-season. Even with the caveat that it took him elements of 4 years to place up these numbers, that’s fairly darn nice. It’s additionally fairly darn shocking. It’s shocking sufficient that I guess a few of you studying this text had been genuinely stumped by the “guess the thriller participant” recreation, although Sosa’s title and movie on the prime of the web page ought to have given it away. Bench gamers don’t normally put up All-Star numbers. That’s why they’re bench gamers, not All-Stars.
I don’t imply to say that Sosa is actually an All-Star-caliber participant whom the Phillies have foolishly confined to the bench. There are good the explanation why his numbers from throughout a number of seasons don’t imply as a lot as they might in the event that they’d are available a single 12 months. You’ll be able to’t simply extrapolate a part-time participant. For one factor, the righty-batting Sosa has extensive platoon splits, which Matthew Trueblood lately wrote about for Baseball Prospectus. For his profession, Sosa has a 92 wRC+ in opposition to righties and a 112 wRC+ in opposition to lefties. Since he joined the Phillies, these splits are much more excessive; he has an 84 wRC+ in 364 plate appearances in opposition to same-handed pitching and a 140 wRC+ in 285 plate appearances in opposition to southpaws. It’s not as if the Phillies have closely shielded Sosa from right-handed pitching, however nonetheless, he’d should take care of unfavorable platoon matchups extra typically if he had been a full-time participant.
It is usually essential to think about that Sosa has racked up a good quantity of his innings as a defensive alternative. He’s performed 221 video games within the discipline for the Phillies, however has solely began about three-quarters of them. That has allowed him to compile 1,511 2/3 defensive innings, about 75 greater than you could possibly fairly count on from any participant in a 162-game season. So, he has amassed worth considerably disproportionately; his elite protection is carrying a bit extra weight in his WAR than it will if he had been enjoying every single day.
Even so, the overarching level stays: Sosa has been good for Philadelphia. Actually good. There’s a fairly compelling case that he’s been probably the most worthwhile part-time participant within the league. Since his first day with the Phillies, he’s certainly one of 318 gamers to take at the least 600 journeys to the plate. Amongst that group, he ranks twenty sixth in WAR per plate look. All 25 gamers ranked forward of him are unquestionably starters – and never simply any starters. Twenty-three of them have been All-Stars, and the one ones who haven’t are Gold Glove-winning catchers Patrick Bailey and Cal Raleigh. Now, to be honest, utilizing plate appearances as a denominator barely overstates Sosa’s worth, given the disproportionate relationship between his plate appearances and defensive innings. Alternatively, he nonetheless ranks among the many prime quartile of gamers in WAR per recreation. That calculation severely undervalues his manufacturing, contemplating that solely three-quarters of his appearances have been begins.
Right here’s one other method to consider how a lot worth Sosa has offered as a part-time participant. Amongst gamers with as many or fewer plate appearances (649) than Sosa since he joined the Phillies, solely two have amassed extra WAR: Wander Franco and Jackson Merrill. Solely 5 others have even come inside one win of Sosa. Equally, amongst gamers with as many or fewer video games performed than Sosa (223), solely seven have recorded extra WAR – Mike TroutFranco, Merrill, Gabriel Moreno, Oneil Cruz, Byron Buxtonand Jake Rogers – whereas solely 9 others have come inside one win. Merely put, most guys who play as sometimes as Sosa aren’t wherever close to as productive.
Sosa is productive in numerous alternative ways, too. He isn’t an all-around expertise. His arm energy and call expertise are missing, and, most significantly, he can’t draw a stroll to save lots of his life. Since he grew to become a Phillie, his 3.5% stroll charge ranks final within the Nationwide League (min. 600 PA). Nevertheless, he’s a well-rounded participant who gives worth together with his bat, his glove, and his legs. Certainly, he supplies a mix of energy, velocity, and protection that few others deliver to the desk. Throughout his tenure with the Phillies, Sosa has hit 19 house runs, stolen 14 bases, and accrued 13 OAA. Over the previous 5 full seasons, solely 12 gamers have had a 12 months with at the least 19 house runs, 14 stolen bases, and even 12 OAA (I introduced that quantity down to regulate for Sosa’s further defensive innings). Right here’s the entire record:
Energy, Pace, and Protection
Sure, it took Sosa a number of seasons to perform what these different gamers pulled off in only one. However, the truth that his latest numbers put him in any form of dialogue involving that record of names is one other nice illustration of simply how nicely he has carried out.
On prime of all that, I’ve to say Sosa’s aptitude for getting hit by pitches, a talent that helps him compensate, at the least a bit bit, for his incapability to attract a stroll. In his rookie season, he was hit 17 instances in simply 326 plate appearances. No participant (min. 300 PA) has been beaned at a better charge in any season since. Even Sosa himself has not been in a position to preserve that absurd HBP charge, however he has been hit on 19 events in his time with the Phillies. On a per-PA foundation, that’s the third-highest charge within the Nationwide League (min. 600 PA).
Since he arrived in Philadelphia, Sosa has been making his case for extra enjoying time. That’s been very true over the primary week of 2025. The Phillies are 5-1 to start out the season, and Sosa has been their most pivotal participant. He has solely performed in 4 of their six video games, however he leads the crew in hits (9), WAR (0.5), and WPA (0.75). He additionally ranks among the many prime 10 NL hitters in all three classes. Evidently, he received’t preserve his 318 wRC+ all season. If I needed to guess, I’d additionally take the below on his placing up one other 4.7 WAR over his subsequent full season’s value of plate appearances. Nonetheless, there isn’t any denying how a lot he has completed for his membership, not solely over the previous week, however over the previous two years, eight months, and 5 days.
The Phillies had eight All-Stars final 12 months. 13 gamers on their roster have made an All-Star crew. They’ve the third-highest payroll within the league and 7 gamers making upwards of $20 million per 12 months. The reigning NL East winners are loaded with star energy. But, since Sosa got here alongside, nobody at present on this group has been extra worthwhile per plate look or batter confronted (min. 100 PA/TBF) than the utility infielder. And that’s why I made him a baseball card.
