The Twins signed shortstop Andrelton Simmons to a one year, $10.5 million deal last Tuesday.
Simmons is a four time Gold Glove award winner and one time Platinum Glove award winner. He has gotten some MVP votes three times in his nine year career, finishing 8th, 14th, and 15th. Simmons is mostly known for his elite defense. He is one of the best defensive shortstops of all time after all.
Simmons is an average hitter, having hit .282/.328/.391 (.719) with 18 HR and 125 RBI since 2018. He’s not much of a power hitter. His career high in home runs came in 2013 when he had 17. He doesn’t strike out a lot, but doesn’t walk at a high rate either. He struck out 8.4% of the time and walked 5.8% of the time in 1,151 plate appearances since 2018. Simmons had a 95 wRC+ and .311 wOBA in that time as well.
LAA@HOU – April 24, 2018
Defensively, Simmons is amazing. One of the best defensive shortstops ever. Among active shortstops, he is 1st in DRS (191), 1st in UZR (113.1), 7th in out of zone plays made (644), and 2nd in OAA (43), which has only been tracked since 2017.
LAA@TOR – May 23, 2018
The left side of the infield for the Twins now consists of Andrelton Simmons at shortstop and Josh Donaldson at third base. Easily one of the best defensive left sides of the infield in baseball. The Twins also believe that Jorge Polanco will be a good defender at second and better than he was at shortstop. If Polanco can be a plus defender and Sano can continue to be an average or better defender (1 OAA at first base in 2020), then this is one of the best defensive infields in the league. With Kirilloff, Buxton, and Kepler in the outfield, and Garver and Jeffers behind home plate, this might be one of the best overall defensive teams in baseball.
I think this is a very good signing for the Twins. Their defense improves a lot and they find their utility man by moving Polanco to second and making Arraez the new utility player. Arraez can play second base, third base, left field, and even some shortstop if needed.
Twins Current Lineup:
- C: Mitch Garver
- 1B: Miguel Sano
- 2B: Jorge Polanco
- SS: Andrelton Simmons
- 3B: Josh Donaldson
- LF: Alex Kirilloff
- CF: Byron Buxton
- RF: Max Kepler
- DH: Brent Rooker
