Why doesn't Pearce get any action at 2B?

[bluerap23]

Zeke and Pearce have been two of our most consistent offensive players lately. With Travis and Tulo out I don't see why we don't give this a try?

[Natural11]

It's hard to hide defensive weakness at second base. We only need to look back two games to get a great example of that.

Pearce has looked shaky at worst, average at best in left field. You can get away with that in a corner outfield position. I don't really like Travis at second, but he'll look like Robbie Alomar in comparison to Steve Pearce. A weak defender at second is far more likely to cost a team a win than a weak/average defender in left field.

I'd like to see Carerra's bat in the line-up more, but frankly if this season is a wash, which it certainly seems to be, I'm more interested in seeing the kids get some time in the outfield when the rosters expand.

It's a shame they didn't try to move Pillar while he has a positive WAR. We could have put 2 months of outfield AB's to good use.

[The_Hater]

Pearce is awful in LF and I'm pretty sure he would be awful at 2B too. It's not the worst idea in the world considering the other options we have right now.

[The_Hater]

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It's a shame they didn't try to move Pillar while he has a positive WAR. We could have put 2 months of outfield AB's to good use.

Would Pearce, Carrera, Bautista be the worst defensive OF ever or just in the past 10 years?

[phillipmike]

It would be worth giving him a shot as he is awful in the OF. He cant track a fly ball for his life and he played most all his minors career in the infield - mind you at 1B but he has played 2B before and he has been decent. He might be better than Barney at this point defensively.

UZR/150 at 2B:
Pearce 1.7 (in 242 innings in 2015 and 2016)
Barney -1.7 (in 303 innings in 2017)

I would include Refsynder but his sample sizes have been so small. That and he was draft as an OF and only converted to 2B in 2013 after the Yankees deemed his bat didnt have enough power to play the OF. Seems like a simple switch for me; Pearce to 2B and Refsynder to play a bit more OF if needed.

Conversely Pearce's OF UZR/150 is -17.5.

Barney and Goins MO were their gloves but if they cant defend then they dont have much use. Goins is 3 years younger, LHB and at least can hit well with runners in scoring position (156 wRC+) with a lot of clutch hits. I have no idea why Barney is still on this team - if he keeps it up his bad play and the Jays are going for a WC spot he might not be in September.

[Lateral Quicks]

I suspect if management thought Pearce was capable of playing even a somewhat competent 2B they would have tried him there long before they brought in Refsnyder.

I like Pearce's bat, but next year he should be penciled in for part-time DH duties as well as a late inning pinch hitter. He shouldn't see the field, except maybe the occasional start at 1B to spell Smoak. He's just not that good defensively.

[Skin Blues]

I'd prefer Pearce at 2B over Refsnyder, definitely. I said from the beginning of the season I thought Pearce should be our backup 2B. I don't know how reliable his UZR is considering it was such a small sample, so the eye test is more valuable at this point and the Jays must not like what they see. And while Carrera has been good this year, it's mostly BABIP and HR/FB% driven which is not sustainable. He has a long history of being a below average hitter and his profile hasn't changed this year. He's still striking out >20% of the time and not getting the ball in the air at all, so it's not like we really need to shoe-horn him into LF. He's a good 4th OF. If Carrera is in LF though, Pearce should be at 2B over Refsnyder or Barney if we're still trying to win games.