Given how often we gawk at his highlight snares in the outfield, we can’t really say that Blue Jays fly-catcher Kevin Pillar is overlooked. We don’t look over him; we look at him, you see. That said, it’s possible we don’t grasp just how valuable Pillar has been this season despite being unremarkable at the plate.
During the regular season, Pillar batted .278/.314/.399 (96 OPS+) in 628 plate appearances. Those aren’t bad numbers, to be sure, but his OPS undershot that of the average center fielder in 2015 by 26 points. Also, bear in mind that Pillar logged exactly half his plate appearances at the Rogers Centre, which is a beneficial environment for right-handed batters. Again, he’s not a bad hitter, but he’s not a particularly good one, either.
What Pillar is is a darn fine ballplayer, and that’s because he thrives in the other phases of the position player’s game. As it turns out, Pillar flashed those skills during the course of the Jays’ Monday night win over the Royals in Game 3 of the ALCS (TOR 11, KC 8).
First, there was his rightly exalted defense. Just ask Lorenzo Cain in the first inning …
The play would be more incredible if it weren’t somehow routine with Pillar.
“It was nice. I mean, he’s been doing it all year long,” said Josh Donaldson after Game 3. “He’s willing to give up his body, he’s willing to run through that wall for us.”
Of course, it’s not just about Pillar’s bounty of jaw-droppers. It’s also about the flyouts that don’t involve hellbent dives or over-the-shoulder negotiations. Sometimes, it’s about that near-immediate first step and easy range. Just ask Alex Rios in the eighth …
It so happens that Crushed Velvet (this is the nickname that Kevin Pillar has been at least temporarily assigned by this scribe), per FanGraphs, ranks as the fifth-most valuable fielder in all of baseball this season when it comes to estimated runs saved. That’s not among outfielders; that’s among all fielders at all positions (although catcher framing isn’t accounted for in these numbers).
And then there’s Pillar’s base-running. As a fleet-footed, max-effort right-handed batter, he’s quick out of the box and down the line, as was evident in the second inning of Game 3 …
Pillar’s also a frequent (by contemporary standards, anyway) and high-percentage base-stealer, as during the regular season he swiped 25 bags in 29 attempts, which was good for a success rate of 86.2 percent (among American Leaguers with at least 10 stolen bases, only Michael Brantley had a higher percentage of successful attempts).
Tidily enough, Pillar’s base-stealing chops were on display moments after he outran the Royals’ attempt at the 6-4-3 …
Know when you got a good jump? When your steal attempt is treated with quasi-defensive indifference in the second inning of a one-run game.
Of course, deft sliding is also a part of base-running excellence, as Pillar reminded the Royals moments after the theft above …
During the regular season, Pillar scored a run 35 percent of the time he reached base versus an AL average of 30 percent. To be sure, that has a lot to do with the strength of the Jays’ lineup surrounding Pillar, but it also has something to do with Pillar’s ability to round those bases.
According to FanGraphs, only Mookie Betts provided more base-running value in 2015 than Pillar did (and Betts beats him by a fractional amount). Simply put, almost no one combined defensive value and base-running value quite like Pillar has this season. Baseball-Reference assigns Pillar a WAR of 5.2, which makes him one of the 25 most valuable players in all of baseball this season. Would you have thought that about a player who came up short with the bat relative to his positional peers?
Crushed Velvet is good at baseball — especially catching it and outrunning it.
(USATSI)
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