When Carlos Correa made his major league debut for the first place Astros in June and crushed two home runs his first week, many dubbed him the next Alex Rodriguez and closed their minds to the AL Rookie of the Year race. The 20 year old, slick fielding shortstop was the best we were going to see this year without question. Francisco Lindor would like you to open your minds and your Rookie of the Year ballots.
Losing much of the fanfare to Correa because the Indians wanted to make sure he stayed in AAA long enough to avoid Super 2 status, Lindor made his debut six days after Correa and immediately became the Indians starting shortstop, replacing Jose Ramirez. Since then, he has not just become the best fielding shortstop for Cleveland since Omar Vizquel, but one of their top hitters in the second half and favorably comparable to any shortstop in baseball today.
While he trails in playing time to many starters who have been around all year, Lindor has already saved 7.7 runs over the average shortstop (according to FanGraphs.com) placing him fourth in the league behind three players who average more than 400 more innings played. His UZR/150 of 14.9 is second in the AL behind only J.J. Hardy and just three others in the National League. Lindor is just 21 years old.
For those who watch him play, Lindor is as big of an improvement Jose Ramirez and Asdrubal Cabrera as Didi Gregorious (one of the three with more runs saved) was over Derek Jeter. His range is incredible to see and this is backed up by FanGraphs Inside Edge fielding which has him fielding 75% of unlikely plays (usually converted between 10-40% of the time) and 80% of even plays (40-60%). While he has gotten lazy with his footwork at times, leading to a few throwing errors, he has quickly made up for his mistakes and looks to be one of the best defensive short stops in baseball for years to come.
Of course, awards, accolades and name recognition rarely come with defense (how many knew that Adeiny Hechevarria and Nick Ahmed were among the top four shortstops in all of baseball?), so Lindor’s offensive prowess needs to be proclaimed. Since day one, he has batted second in the Indians lineup due to a generally weak batting order and while it took him a moment to get his feet set, he has now earned that spot.
From his debut on June 14th through July 7th, Lindor played in 21 games, batted .205/.239/.253, hit one home run and struck out 19 times to four walks. Playing against Correa and the Astros on July 8th, something changed. Since then, he has batted .345/.381/.509 to bring his season average up to .298 (Correa is currently hitting .282 in ten more plate appearances) and brought his home run total to seven after two in consecutive games against the Yankees in New York. In his first series on the national stage, Lindor went 7/11 with three RBI, three extra base hits and three runs scored.
This is to take nothing from Correa, who has about double the home runs and RBI, but less of the defense and speed. The two are very different players, possibly as different as their most often used comparatives, Alex Rodriguez and Roberto Alomar. Both were excellent players their entire career and (barring PED controversies) deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, but they were very different players. Since what Lindor does on defense and on the bases is a an underrated part of the game, Correa will probably still take the award, but Lindor certainly deserves respect and consideration.
There is still a month left to play and at the rate he is going, Lindor is likely to climb to third in the AL in runs saved by a shortstop despite missing most of the first three months of the season. His offensive numbers were also hurt by the greed of the front office to keep him from a fourth year of arbitration eligibility as he was just as ready in April as he was in June and he could have gotten his month of adjustment over with much earlier in the season.
Right now, he ranks third among AL rookies in WAR (Lindor has 2.1) behind Correa (2.8) and the injured Devon Travis of Toronto (2.3), but he is gaining quickly. Since August 4th, Correa has struggled (for him, at least), batting .239/.354/.358 with just four extra base hits and nine RBI. Lindor has exploded over that period, crushing a .405/.440/.554 line with seven extra base hits and eight RBI from the top of a much weaker lineup. In addition, even without the offensive production, like when he went through his struggles in June, Lindor is still a valuable player to the team just through his defense. Without that, Correa has less to provide when his bat gets cold.
Both shortstops are tremendous athletes and should be great for years to come, helping a couple smaller market teams build their franchises the right way starting up the middle. Expect greatness from the players that came into 2015 ranked as the #3 and #4 prospects in all of baseball. Just make sure to appreciate that greatness even if it isn’t smashing home runs on a playoff team.
