(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
He is still capable of contributing to a baseball team in contention. But if you compare him to other right fielders, maybe the picture of how much he contributes changes a bit. His on-base percentage ranks as seventh-best in the American League among qualified right fielders (which he is not, due to also spending some time at DH).
His slugging of .354 is 38th among all right fielders and would be 10th or worse among qualified right fielders. It is 70 points behind Cleveland’s Shin-Soo Shoo, who ranks ninth. His two stolen bases are a non-starter. His 24 RBIs, too, ranks last compared to the nine qualified right fielders.
Last year’s numbers would put Ordonez around the fringes of the upper third in both slugging and on-base percentage in today’s AL.
Basically, what I’m getting at there, is that when you compare Ordonez to the production typically found at his position, he pales this year, and though it’s reasonable to expect for him to see some rebound from his poor start to the season, he’s still at best a league-average right fielder. And he does not make up for it with his fielding ability.
Great players keep putting up big stats in their 40s. (Apparently, so do a lot of players who were previously pretty good but kept using steroids, say Barry Bonds.) That’s how they set such high career marks. Good players play until their mid 30s. Average players may stick around until 30. And mediocre players have a couple of seasons in their 20s.
Ordonez is 35. He’s had a pretty nice career, and he’s given a baseball-loving peoples around the state of Michigan memories that will last a life time.
Maybe, at age 35, it’s fair to say he’s not going to put up the kinds of numbers he did in 2006 and 2007. For most players, the dropoff becomes a bit steeper as you age. Maybe, this is the player he is today.
There’s nothing wrong with that. He just has to be played accordingly.
What do you think?
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