Many Yankee fans may have already forgotten that the Yanks got Chase Headley for Yangervis Solarte. Solarte so far this year is doing ok on a San Diego ballclub that is doing.. ok. He’s provided decent hitting for the 23-25 Padres, who been challenged on offense (as is rest of league). The numbers:
Solarte: 2-23-.274 with a .329 OBA after 146 AB
Headley: 6-22-.253 with a .311 OBA in 166 AB
Solarte’s played 3rd, 1st, and 2nd base — and is listed as a reserve firstbaseman on San Diego by baseball-reference.com (Will Middlebrooks is listed as the Padre regular 3rd baseman; Yonder Alonso as their 1st baseman). Headley is the Yanks’ regular 3rd baseman.
Now check out their lifetime 162-game averages:
Solarte: 11-65-.263 with a .335 OBA in 563 AB
Headley: 16-70-.265 with a .346 OBA in 583 AB
Of course Solarte (27 yrs old) is only in his second season, while Headley (31 yrs old) has put up his numbers for 8 years.
Interestingly, Headley stole a lot of bases early in his career — between 2009 and 2012 Headley stole 57 bases and was only caught 15 times. These last few years (with a bad back cropping up now and again) he doesn’t steal much anymore (7 last year; none so far this year). Solarte has stolen one base in his career so far, and been caught once.
On defense — Headley is spectacular — although this year he’s made a lot of errors on balls right to him. Reminds me of Graig Nettles‘ first year with the Yankees, when he had his worst year defensively, making 26 errors. Nettles was considered a brilliant defensive 3rd baseman already (having been robbed for some Gold Gloves by Brooks Robinson — Nettles having led the league in fielding but Robinson winning the Gold Glove to Nettles’ admitted confusion).
Nettles vs Headley is for another post. Today it’s Headley vs Solarte. An interesting trade — Solarte is no slouch and he’s only 27; Headley can be spectacular at 3rd with a bit more of a homerun bat than Solarte.
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