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Colorado Rockies: José Iglesias is Raimel Tapia 2.0

By Noah Yingling

Sep 25, 2021; Denver, Colorado, USA; Colorado Rockies left fielder Raimel Tapia reacts after getting called out on strikes while playing against the San Francisco Giants in the third inning at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Michael Ciaglo-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 25, 2021; Denver, Colorado, USA; Colorado Rockies left fielder Raimel Tapia reacts after getting called out on strikes while playing against the San Francisco Giants in the third inning at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Michael Ciaglo-USA TODAY Sports /
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Colorado Rockies, Jose Iglesias
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 03: Jose Iglesias #12 of the Boston Red Sox celebrates with teammates after scoring in the sixth inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on October 03, 2021 in Washington, DC. Iglesias will be with the Colorado Rockies in 2022. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) /

The Colorado Rockies have officially moved on from Trevor Story as, on Sunday, he signed a six-year deal worth $140 million with the Boston Red Sox.

To replace him in the field, the Rockies signed José Iglesias as a free agent on a one-year deal for $5 million. While there’s the old adage that “there’s no such thing as a bad year deal,” Iglesias is a huge downgrade from Story on all sides of the ball.

When Iglesias was signed, some touted him as a great defensive shortstop … and he was not, at least by most of the metrics in 2021. That and Iglesias’ bat made us think “this sounds a lot like Raimel Tapia.”

So, we fired up our old friends (Baseball-Reference’s Stathead and FanGraphs) and sure enough, they have a LOT of similarities … and not particularly in a good way.

New Colorado Rockies shortstop José Iglesias is very similar to Raimel Tapia

Aside from the positional difference and the fact that new Colorado Rockies shortstop José Iglesias bats right-handed and throws right-handed, he and Raimel Tapia have nearly identical numbers … and not in a good way.

Tapia has been a player that has been a replacement-level player for his career or, in other words, a player that is very close to being a Triple-A player. In parts of six seasons in the majors, Tapia has played in 439 games with 1425 plate appearances and he has a career rWAR of 0.4.

Iglesias has had a longer career than Tapia but in recent years, he’s been nearly identical to Tapia, especially offensively.

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