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Colorado Rockies: making the case for free agent Carlos Santana

By Noah Yingling

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 09: Carlos Santana #41 of the Cleveland Indians celebrates with his teammates in the dugout after hitting a two run home run scoring Jay Bruce #32 against Luis Severino #40 of the New York Yankees during the fourth inning in Game Four of the American League Divisional Series at Yankee Stadium on October 9, 2017 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 09: Carlos Santana #41 of the Cleveland Indians celebrates with his teammates in the dugout after hitting a two run home run scoring Jay Bruce #32 against Luis Severino #40 of the New York Yankees during the fourth inning in Game Four of the American League Divisional Series at Yankee Stadium on October 9, 2017 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) /
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CLEVELAND, OH – MAY 15: First baseman Carlos Santana #41 of the Cleveland Indians catches a fly ball off the bat of Derek Norris of the Tampa Bay Rays to end the game at Progressive Field on May 15, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Indians defeated the Rays 8-7. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OH – MAY 15: First baseman Carlos Santana #41 of the Cleveland Indians catches a fly ball off the bat of Derek Norris of the Tampa Bay Rays to end the game at Progressive Field on May 15, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Indians defeated the Rays 8-7. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /

Santana only played 64 games at first base in 2016 as the Indians had Mike Napoli play the majority of the games at first base and Santana would be the designated hitter. However, with Napoli leaving the Indians after the 2016 season and the Indians signing Edwin Encarnacion, who almost exclusively DH’s, Santana played first base in 140 games in 2017 while only DH’ing in seven.

Santana’s defense was so good that he was nominated for a Gold Glove. Eric Hosmer won it but if you look at the numbers, it should have been Santana.

Colorado Rockies
Colorado Rockies /

Colorado Rockies

According to Fangraphs, Hosmer had -7 Defensive Runs Saved. Santana was much better as he had 10 DRS at first, which was tied for the best in the American League and it was second best of all first baseman in baseball (Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds was first with 11 DRS). Hosmer was 18th among all first baseman in DRS.

With UZR (or Ultimate Zone Rating), Santana was second best in the American League to the Twins’ Joe Mauer (who was number one overall) and third best in baseball among first baseman (behind Mauer and Votto). Hosmer was 12th best so you can easily make the case that Santana should have won the award.

With Nolan Arenado and DJ LeMahieu winning Gold Gloves in 2017 and Trevor Story having 11 DRS, if the Rockies were to add Santana, they would definitely have the best defensive infield in baseball (if they don’t already).

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