It’s very common to see Twins fans consider Eddie Rosario to be one of the best Twins players. He’s probably not even in the top 10. Out of 276 votes on my story, 14 people (5%) said that Rosario was very good, 86 people (31%) said he was above average, 159 people (58%) said he was average, and 17 people (6%) said he was bad. Far too many people have claimed that he’s the best outfielder the Twins have when he’s not. Max Kepler and Byron Buxton are much better offensively and defensively. You could argue that Jake Cave is also a better outfielder.
Another way that shows that he’s overrated is his stats. Everyone claims that he’s some sort of All-Star outfielder, but his stats suggest that he’s not. In 2019, he slashed .276/.300/.500 (.800 OPS), with a .329 wOBA, 103 wRC+, and a .273 BABIP. He hit 28 doubles, 1 triple, and 32 home runs, while driving in 109 runs in 137 games. His Statcast stats weren’t that good, but better than his stats from before. 8.5 Barrel%, .269 xBA, .501 xSLG, .330 xwOBA, .374 xwOBACON, 36.0 Hard Hit %, 14.6 K%, and a 3.7 BB%. Defense was a huge problem for Rosario in 2019. In 1,146.0 innings split between all three outfield positions, he recorded a -8 DRS, -5.6 UZR, -6.7 UZR/150, and a terrible -17 OAA. His total fWAR on the season was 1.2, which is below average.
His career numbers aren’t much better. Since his debut in 2015, he’s slashed .279/.309/.479 (.788 OPS), with a .330 wOBA, 105 wRC+, and a .310 BABIP. He’s hit 127 doubles, 22 triples, and 106 home runs, while driving in 346 runs in 640 games. His career Statcast stats are slightly worse than the career stats from above. 7.3 Barrel%, .252 xBA, .442 xSLG, .307 xwOBA, .366 xwOBACON, 33.1 Hard Hit %, 19.4 K%, and a 4.4 BB%. His career defensive stats are much better than his 2019 defensive stats. In 5,276.0 split between all three outfield positions, he recorded a 1 DRS, 6.9 UZR, 1.4 UZR/150, and a -4.5 OAA.
Those numbers aren’t very good by any means. They’re serviceable, but not amazing like everyone makes him seem. .750 OPS or more is considered above average. .325 wOBA is considered average. 100 wRC+ is considered average. For all defensive categories, 0 is considered average.
So now that you’ve seen the stats and know how much he’s referred to as good, you can see that he’s overrated and average to barely above average at best. The best decision in my opinion would be to trade him, especially with top outfield prospects Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach about ready to make their transition to the MLB sometime within the next 1-2 years, depending on what happens with this COVID-19 situation.
