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Colorado Rockies: Should they acquire Christian Yelich from Miami?

By Noah Yingling

ARLINGTON, TX - JULY 25: Christian Yelich #21 of the Miami Marlins celebrates a three-run homerun against the Texas Rangers in the fifth inning at Globe Life Park in Arlington on July 25, 2017 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TX - JULY 25: Christian Yelich #21 of the Miami Marlins celebrates a three-run homerun against the Texas Rangers in the fifth inning at Globe Life Park in Arlington on July 25, 2017 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /
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LOS ANGELES, CA – MAY 18: Christian Yelich #21 of the Miami Marlins celebrates his solo homerun to trail 4-2 to the Los Angeles Dodgers during the third inning at Dodger Stadium on May 18, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – MAY 18: Christian Yelich #21 of the Miami Marlins celebrates his solo homerun to trail 4-2 to the Los Angeles Dodgers during the third inning at Dodger Stadium on May 18, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /

Defense

Even though he won a Gold Glove in 2014, he did not do particularly well in 2017. He ranked below league average in Defensive Runs Saved, Statcast’s Outs Above Average metric, and Statcast’s Catch Probability Leaderboard.

However, it should be noted that 2017 was Yelich’s first full season playing center field. In 2017, he had -6 Defensive Runs Saved, according to Baseball Reference. Prior to 2017, he never was below 6 Defensive Runs Saved for a full season in his MLB career (in 2013, he only played in 62 games after making his MLB debut in July). His numbers when he played in center field, though, were noticeably lower in previous seasons.

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Baserunning

In 2017, he had 16 stolen bases and in four of the five seasons that he has played in the major leagues, he has had double digits in stolen bases. His career high is 21 from 2014 and gone down since but he is still a very good baserunner.

According to Statcast’s Sprint Speed metrics, Yelich averaged a sprint speed of 28.7 feet per second. For comparison, the only player on the Rockies in 2017 that was faster was Raimel Tapia at 29.5 feet per second. Trevor Story was just behind Yelich at 28.4 feet per second.

Final Thoughts

To acquire Yelich, considering that he is on a team friendly, long term deal, it would probably take a lot to get him. However, as we mentioned in our article about JT Realmuto, the Marlins have been known to not get great returns on their players. However, if there are two players that the Marlins would want to get high returns on, it would be Realmuto and Yelich.

For Yelich alone, I would say that the Marlins would probably want one of the Rockies top five prospects, another prospect who was in the Rockies top 10, and probably one more in the top 20.

Honestly, I think that it would be perfect if the Rockies could get Realmuto and Yelich both but, quite frankly, there is virtually no chance of that happening.

However, acquiring one of the two is a lot more realistic.

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