Ranking The Rockies: 5 DJ LeMahieu

We at BSN Denver are running a series where we rank how valuable each of the Colorado Rockies’ 51 players was to the team in 2015. Value was calculated by statistics, viewing, and how memorable each player’s contributions were. The rankings will be from last to first, you may view the full rankings (here)

Player: DJ LeMahieu

Stats: 150 G, 620 PA, .301 AVG, .358 OBP, .388 SLG, 6 HR, 61 RBI, 89 wRC+, UZR 0.6, WAR 1.9

Big Moment: July 27, the Colorado Rockies are at Wrigley Field on what would be Troy Tulowitzki‘s final game in the purple pinstripes. His middle infield partner LeMahieu had his best game of the season against his former team tallying three hits, two RBI, two runs, one double and stellar defense up-the-middle. He made three putouts and assists that night and combined with Tulo for their last double play. The Rockies would score four runs in the top of the ninth topped by a Carlos Gonzalez home run that drove in LeMahieu to give the Rockies a late lead. However, a Kris Bryant walk off home run won the topsy-turvy game for the Northsiders by the final of 9-8.

Season Recap: The right-handed hitting second baseman followed up his 2014 Gold Glove season with his first All-Star appearance in 2015. The 27-year-old is the first second basemen in franchise history to really hold down the reins of the position for an extended period. In 2015, he further cemented his importance to the team raising his batting average 34 points from the prior season while still providing Gold Glove-worthy defense. Although the advanced defensive metrics say he regressed this season it was apparent LeMahieu was a difference maker for the Rockies. In fact, at one point in the season when he, Nolan Arenado and Tulo were playing good ball fans dubbed the infield, “the Coors Shield.”

It’s impossible to just breeze past LeMahieu’s improvement at the plate as even advanced metrics credit him for going from one of the worst full-time hitters in the majors to at least average. An unnoticed part of his improvements on offense was his 23 stolen bases in 26 tries. That is a much better number than his 10 of 20 rate in 2014.

What’s Ahead: LeMahieu has solidified the Rockies second base position. He is first-year arbitration eligible and MLBTR projected him to make 3.7 million this upcoming season. Instead, the Rockies have filed at 3.3 million and LeMahieu filed at 2.8 million (per Jon Heyman). There is some potential for the Rockies to trade him soon since they have a lot of middle infield depth in the minors. Some notables are Trevor Story, Forrest Wall and Brendan Rodgers.