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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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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)
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.

DENVER, COLORADO – JUNE 19: Raimel Tapia #15 of the Colorado Rockies reacts on second base after hitting a double against the Milwaukee Brewers in the first inning at Coors Field on June 19, 2021 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
DENVER, COLORADO – JUNE 19: Raimel Tapia #15 of the Colorado Rockies reacts on second base after hitting a double against the Milwaukee Brewers in the first inning at Coors Field on June 19, 2021 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /

New Colorado Rockies shortstop José Iglesias and Raimel Tapia had nearly identical offensive stats in 2021

Standard
NameGPAABRH2BHRRBISBBBSOBAOBPSLGOPSOPS+
José Iglesias137511483651312794852175.271.309.391.70190
Raimel Tapia1335334876913326650204070.273.327.372.69980

With the exception of OPS+ (Tapia’s being lower since he played half of his games at Coors Field), they are the same thing across the board.

In 2020, the two were similar in the fact that both had very high batting averages (.373 for Iglesias and .321 for Tapia) but Iglesias had much more power (.556 slugging percentage for Iglesias and .402 for Tapia).

But in 2019, again, they were nearly identical or (in the case of OPS) exactly identical.

Standard
NameGPAABRH2BHRRBIBBSOBAOBPSLGOPSOPS+
José Iglesias146530504621452111592070.288.318.407.72483
Raimel Tapia138447426541172394421100.275.309.416.72475

One of the biggest issues for Tapia has been his sky-high groundball rate.

Since 2019, it is the highest in baseball among players with at least 1000 plate appearances, at 59.7 percent. José Iglesias isn’t as high but he’s close. He would have been the second-highest Rockies player in groundball rate behind Tapia at 46.7 percent. That is 38th in the majors in that span (again, minimum of 1000 plate appearances). The next highest for a Rockies hitter is Ryan McMahon at #52.

In 2019, Iglesias’ groundball rate was 12th-highest. Tapia’s was 14th-highest (min. 400 PAs).

In 2020, Iglesias’ groundball rate was much lower as it was 91st (min. 150 PAs). His power also skyrocketed. Tapia’s groundball rate was 8th-highest.

In 2021, Iglesias’ groundball rate was 60th in baseball at 42.1 percent (min. 500 PA’s). Tapia’s rate was highest at a staggering 67.4 percent, or 12 percent higher than any other player with at least 500 PA’s.

CHICAGO, IL – SEPTEMBER 10: José Iglesias #12 of the Boston Red Sox mishandles a ground ball for an error in the fourth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field on September 10, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – SEPTEMBER 10: José Iglesias #12 of the Boston Red Sox mishandles a ground ball for an error in the fourth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field on September 10, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images) /

What do José Iglesias and Raimel Tapia look like defensively?

Defensively, the metrics say that Colorado Rockies outfielder Raimel Tapia was far superior to José Iglesias in 2021.

  • Iglesias: -22 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), -1.4 dWAR, -6.1 UZR, 0 Outs Above Average (OAA)
  • Tapia: 8 DRS, 0.3 dWAR, 4.1 UZR, 1 OAA

For Iglesias’ DRS, that was the worst in baseball by a country mile. In fact, make that two country miles, as no other player in the sport had worse than -13 DRS. But he had been much better in previous seasons, whereas Tapia had not been as good.

In fact, from 2019 through 2020, here are their defensive stats.

  • Iglesias: 3 DRS, -0.9 dWAR, 6.4 UZR, 17 OAA
  • Tapia: -1 DRS, 0.8 dWAR, -2.7 UZR, 4 OAA

Combine 2019 through 2021 and it looks like this:

  • Iglesias: -19 DRS, -2.3 dWAR, 0.3 UZR, 17 OAA
  • Tapia: 7 DRS, 1.1 dWAR, 1.4 UZR, 5 OAA

So Tapia has a big edge in DRS, a smaller edge in dWAR, a slight edge in UZR, and a large gap in OAA.

Overall, in the last two full seasons (2019 and 2021), Iglesias had an rWAR of 0.3 and an fWAR of 2.4. Tapia had a 0.4 fWAR and a -0.4 fWAR. The metrics say that Tapia is the better defender but with Iglesias and Tapia having identical raw offensive stats, Iglesias has a slight edge since he didn’t play half of his games at Coors Field in 2021.

For Trevor Story both defensively and offensively, his third-most comparable player through his age 28 season is Troy Tulowitzki.

Next. 5 reasons why the Rockies won't be contenders in 2022. dark

Replacing an All-Star who was is comparable to Tulowitzki and most comparable to Hall of Famer Ernie Banks for a couple of seasons with a replacement-level player or below is going to be a hard thing for Rockies fans to swallow in 2022, especially when they already have a very similar player that could (or should) be riding the bench more often this season because he hasn’t developed enough at the plate.

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