Let’s not play coy or pretend that you arrived on this page by accident.
I could expend several paragraphs building towards an argument that would gently ease you into the idea of trading Yangervis Solarte. But if you’re here, and you’ve made it this far, you obviously saw a link or a headline that made you click to get here. And I can fully understand if you are completely aghast at the suggestion.
Solarte started the season impressively, hitting seven homers and posting and an .848 OPS in the first month of the season, back when it seemed as though the Blue Jays’ 2018 campaign held some modest promise.
Moreover, Solarte immediately became a fan favourite, injecting demonstrable joy to the proceedings with his celebratory dances and broad, welcoming smile. As much as he is beloved by the fans, his teammates seem to hold him in high regard as well.
On the field, Solarte checks a lot of boxes as well. He’s a switch-hitter, and this season, he’s hit lefties better than righties, which runs counter to his previous career splits. Solarte also has positional versatility, playing every infield position thus far this season. In a year where injuries have wreaked havoc on the lineup, manager John Gibbons has been able to slot Solarte wherever he needs him in the lineup and around the infield.
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All that, for an $8-million salary, which is perfectly reasonable for what Solarte is likely to produce this season.
But… and there’s always a big “but”…
With the playoff contenders in the American League running away from the rest of the pack, and with Josh Donaldson’s ongoing and multiple lingering injury concerns, the Blue Jays need to take a hard look at just about every player on the roster and consider what they might be able to get back for them through the forthcoming trade season.
Solarte’s upside, as stated above, is that he can be a contributor to a contending team that needs a bat off the bench who can play every day if necessary. And it is plausible that the Blue Jays may be able to extract something of reasonable value for such an immediate commodity.
Moreover, Solarte has options of $5.5 million in 2019 and $8 million in 2020, which could begin to push his compensation into a realm where they might not get as much value from him if he is a one- or two-win player.
Teams need to fill up their rosters with big-leaguers, even in transitional years, but would Solarte be essential to the Blue Jays in the coming years? Solarte has unquestionably been a delightful player to embrace, but we’ve also had the opportunity to observe some of the limitations in his game.
On the defensive side, Solarte’s willingness to take the field wherever he’s asked has a certain value to it. The flip side is that he rarely looks at home at any position that he plays. He looks mostly like a competent fill-in, which is not necessarily enough to make him anything close to an untouchable commodity.
If Solarte looks most comfortable anywhere on the diamond, it’s at third base, and as we look ahead to the coming seasons, there’s every hope that the hot corner will be patrolled by someone with some added upside.
(Moreover, given the non-season Donaldson has had to date, would it surprise anyone to see him accept a qualifying offer and back in a Blue Jays uniform next season to re-establish his free-agent value?)
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At the plate, Solarte’s season-long numbers still look quite good, and his home run totals have kept him lingering around the top 20 in the American League in that category. Moreover, he seems to have a knack for producing big hits in close games, with 12 of his 16 homers coming when the game’s margin was within a run.
On the other hand, Solarte has produced a .701 OPS in 283 plate appearances since April 21, and his monthly OPS has gone down in each successive period.
The Blue Jays have also indicated this week that they wish to make room for more playing time at the big-league level for Lourdes Gurriel Jr., which could potentially create a logjam for playing time around the infield. If Solarte were to be moved, it would be one way to clear up that situation.
This isn’t to insist that the Blue Jays must trade Solarte, or should be in a hurry to offload him on whoever might come calling. Many fans would be perfectly happy to see him stick around and lend his flexibility and his blithe demeanour with what will likely be a much younger and evolving team in the coming years.
But should the right offer present itself, and if the Jays could get a prospect above the value of Edward Olivares, whom they gave up to acquire Solarte, they would be well-served to do so.
