Teams who needed or could use an outfield upgrade this winter totaled around half the league, especially in center field. Obviously the Cubs have been among them to make a play, along with the Giants, Angels, and Mets. I always thought the Cardinals should make a move (they were going for Jason Heyward, to their credit). The Orioles were another team that everyone thought would push for an outfield upgrade. A team I haven’t really seen or heard anything on is the White Sox. Dexter Fowler is an underrated, cheaper option that could help a team immediately.
Before the Cubs signed Jason Heyward in early December, it was always an option for the team to re-sign lead-off man and center fielder, Dexter Fowler.
Then they signed Heyward.
With a projected outfield consisting of Kyle Schwarber (LF), Heyward (CF), and Jorge Soler(RF), re-signing Fowler would add to the *potential* logjam in the outfield with Chris Coghlan and Matt Szczur plus potentially Kris Bryant and Javy Baez seeing at least some time out there in 2016.
Would Fowler be a bad add? Of course not (assuming the right price…I’m estimating 4/60 at this point). If you would place him back in CF and move Heyward to his more valuable position of RF, then the defense would be better than what’s projected now. However, with this situation surely Soler would be more expendable than the front office has led us to believe at this point in time.
As of now, it seems a bit unrealistic to consider re-signing Fowler as an option for this Cubs team, despite how awesome it would be to see him back.
Which leads to another team: the White Sox. A lot of people (myself included) thought the Sox would compete in 2015 with the additions of Melky Cabrera, Adam LaRoche, and David Robertson. However, the White Sox, specifically the offense, was bad.
Coming off an age-29 season in which he had his best year at the plate, Fowler will immediately improve an offense that lacks a top-of-the-order presence. Recording 20 stolen bases for the first time since 2009, Fowler also set a career-mark in home runs with 17 and runs scored with 102. I’ll admit that runs scored (plus RBI’s, but that’s for another story) is relied heavily on the team and the player’s teammates. But, nearly 36% of his hits were for extra bases. Also helping his cause is that he played in 156 games in 2015, 40 more than 2014, and only the second time he’s surpassed 135 games in his career.
Already manning center field is Adam Eaton, who had a pretty good year himself. Eaton recorded a 122 OPS+ compared to Fowler’s 107. A solution would be to move Fowler over to right or left field and let Eaton control center. Melky will hold one of those positions so the other corner would be theoretically open. Avisail Garcia, 24, has been in the league since 2012, but played his first full season in 2015. Recording a -.3 rWAR, Garcia hit a mere .257/.309/.365 in 601 plate appearances. His 2016 projections aren’t much better. This says to me how expendable he is, and how much better the offense AND defense could be.
About how the defense could be better: Fowler was a barely above average center fielder playing 81 games at Wrigley Field. It’s already been speculative that if Fowler would re-sign with the Cubs he would most likely have to be moved to a corner before his probable four-year contract is finished. By placing him in, let’s say, right field immediately, the defensive value would decrease slightly because of the position, and because of his athletic ability moving him to a corner now would almost guarantee an increase in his defensive metrics.
Garcia is already a double-digit fWAR guy in terms of defense…negative double-digits. Adding Fowler surely increases defense, along with the obvious offensive upgrade. Also, moving Fowler to a corner could stabilize his known injury-prone past. It’s never affected him to a great extent, as he’s played in at least 116 games every season of his career, but playing those games in a much less stressful position.
Now that the Cardinals lost out on Heyward, they’ve been relatively quiet, except for the signing of Korean pitcher, Seung-Hwan Oh. With taking a good chunk of money in the Jedd Gyorko trade, re-signing Jonathan Broxton, and now Oh, the Cardinals have probably spent the entire lot of money they’ve been saving for a big-time free agent (I kid, of course…but I hope I’m not).
With the Giants’ recent signing of Denard Span, that surely takes them out of the Fowler market. The Tigers haven’t showed much interest in Fowler, as the entire market is thinning, but have made it known they would like to make a move for Yoenis Cespedes to return. I don’t see them strongly, if at all, going after Dex.
The White Sox need an upgrade, and Fowler helps them greatly. By providing the value he has in the past, and is projected to in 2016, Fowler could help the White Sox make a push for the playoffs next year in 2016.
*picture is courtesy of mlb.com
