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Moe sez,
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O'Malley is in a weird place. He can play some. He can field a bunch of positions. Switch hits. Did well in a limited Seattle cup of coffee last year.
But he's no lock, it seems. In some roster-world, I could actually see him making the team and not Montero.
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Shawn O'Malley seems to have that Willie Bloomquist sparkle dust. We're not saying it with a sneer. Last year, when he came up, he worked himself into far more games than you'd have expected. You know, twenty-five years ago James pointed out that we "sabermetricians" are flying over the forest, while the "baseball people" are down in the rain forest, slipping on the moss and slapping away pythons. We have a different view, NOT BETTER OR WORSE, just different. Quote unquote.
And yet too many times, we sabes SAY that but we MEAN "a different view, Always better Never worse."
The field's-eye view of Shawn O'Malley is obviously better than the 3rd-deck view of him is. Some players are like that. Out of that "field view" category of ballplayers emerge the Mark McLemores and Tony Phillipses, the guys we were told "are better than their stats" and then one day, we realize that was always correct.
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I notice that O'Malley's BB:K was 12:14 after he got to Safeco. We're guessing Jerry DiPoto was okay with that kind of sustained professionalism at the plate.
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He's listed as an outfielder, shortstop and second baseman. Makes you wonder: can he legitimately back up at SS? At age 27, Willie could give you ten games a year there (and however many you wanted at 3B or 2B). I figured he was a plus defensive OF, a guy you could put in for Cruz or Smith or even Aoki in the 8th inning, and an emergency infielder. But who knows.
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HQ doesn't have him listed, presumably because there are 500 players just as likely to get you 5 SB's in 5x5 roto. Their Major League Equivalencies show him with an 80% contact rate, 60-ish power (with 100 being league average) and 120-ish speed.
Overall his career minors line projects to --- > 80 OPS+, solid 0.60 EYE, a .250/.300/.350 type slash in Safeco, *if things break right for him.* There are any number of starting shortstops/400 AB utility guys in the majors who do exactly that - Eric Sogard, Ruben Tejada, the current Andrelton Simmons, Alberto Callaspo.
I'm not an O'Malley fan and similarly, the M's aren't under any illusions about Shawn O'Malley becoming the next Ben Zobrist; that's why they're talking about him competing with Luis Sardinas. But the right Willie Bloomquist can do you a lot of good in the #25 slot. Remember, last year the Mariners had 13 different benchies with negative WAR, up to and including guys with -0.9 to -1.2 WAR apiece.
If your goal is merely to "upgrade" -0.7 WAR to +0.4 WAR, Shawn O'Malley becomes very interesting. He can do that, and he can do it DiPoto's way. So my man Chris better step lively.
Cheers,
Dr D