Josh Reddick’s Five Tool Potential
By Tony Frye
You read the title correctly. Josh Reddick, right fielder for the Oakland Athletics, has the potential to be the team’s big five tool player in 2015. The question was posed to me on our new ask.fm account and after crunching through the numbers it seems pretty clear that Reddick is a stand out player with a history that proves his potential.
I know what you’re going to say and, frankly, I get it. Reddick had a less than stellar year in 2013 and his 2014 took a while to heat up. 2013, you’ll recall, was marred by an injury that clearly impacted the mechanics of Reddick’s swing and when your mechanics are off you’ll try anything to get a hit which, in turn, leads to less plate discipline. So, for the sake of my argument, we’re going to take 2013 out of the equation as a fluke year and assume that 2012 and 2014 are more consistent with Reddick’s performance ability.
First, his arm in right field has never been called into question. He is a gold glove winning fielder with the ability to throw runners out at third from the warning track. That’s tool one and there’s really no debating it, so we won’t.
Second, his legs are plenty fast. In 2012 he stole 11 bags and was caught once. 2014 saw the Athletics steal significantly fewer bases so Reddick’s low SB count shouldn’t be considered. It wasn’t for lack of speed that he didn’t steal but rather for a philosophical shift in the A’s organization that saw them be less aggressive on the base path, despite having several speedsters in the lineup.
More from White Cleat Beat
- Oakland A’s add needed bullpen piece in Trevor May
- Garrett Acton could become key piece in Oakland A’s bullpen
- The stark difference between Oakland A’s, San Francisco Giants
- Jace Peterson – the Oakland A’s new super utility option
- Oakland A’s sign intriguing catcher Yohen Pozo
Third, Reddick in 2014 showed that he is capable of hitting for average. While everyone raves about his 2012 season, his 2014 campaign actually saw him raise his average from .242 to .264 (up from .226 in 2013) while also improving his on base percentage. His strike out total went down from 22% to 16% (we’re looking at percentage of K for AB because he played almost 50 fewer games in 2014). In fact, almost 40% of his career strike outs came in his 2012 season where he finished 16th in MVP voting.
Fourth tool is power and we all know that Reddick has it in him to hit the long ball. His 2012 season may be a career high (32) but his HR per AB percentage only dipped from 4.7% to 3%. For comparison, Josh Donaldson had a 4% and Brandon Moss had a 4.3% in 2014. Beyond the long ball, though, Reddick managed a career high seven triples in 2014 which means that 4.7% of the time, Reddick can get to third base or better compare to Donaldson’s 4.4% and Moss’s 4.6%. I know, that’s a lot of numbers all in one paragraph but it illustrates that Reddick has the power needed to qualify as a five tool player.
The final tool, fielding ability, is tied to the first tool (his throwing arm) and is without debate top notch. Some may point to his .975 fielding average as an indication that he’s not as good as he appears on the field but I attribute that number to his hustle and speed and insist that he has a chance at more plays than the average right field player which may lower that number since he may only have a fringe chance. If he can get to first base to make a play and misses it, it counts against him but most right fielders couldn’t even make an attempt on the play so their numbers aren’t affected. Does that make sense? It makes sense in my head.
All that being said, I’m not assuming that Josh Reddick will actually be a five tool player. There’s a lot of stats that you have to maintain to get that distinction but to everyone that points to a slow start in 2014 I remind them that the final numbers include that slow start and if it were truly as abysmal as some may say, he’d have to be a five tool player to make it up in the second half. I’m hoping that, without the Donaldson/Moss/Cespedes safety net in the lineup that Reddick can focus and prove to everyone that 2012 was not a fluke, 2013 was.
If you have an awesome question you’d like answered by one of the beautiful Swingin’ A’s editors, swing by our new profile on ask.fm or enter it here in this little box.