Building a 5-Tool Player From the 2020 Twins Team

[Cooper Carlson]

A five-tool player in baseball is a hitter who has mastered all five of the main abilities. These abilities are contact, power, speed, fielding, and arm strength. MLB.com is doing something similar so I decided to take a Minnesota spin on it. I will take one player for each category.Hitting for contact: Luis Arraez

Key statistics: 7.9 K%, .334 AVG

 

Luis Arraez is the obvious choice here, although maybe you could make an argument for someone like Astudillo but Arraez brings a lot more to the table. The contact/hit tool is important for any player and if you combine an elite hit tool like Arraez with an elite power tool, then you probably have a top five hitter in baseball.

 

Arraez had a 7.9 K% last season and that placed him in the top 1% of the league for that category. If he qualified for the batting title then he would have finished just one tick behind Tim Anderson and his .335 average. He also finished with the best swinging strike% in baseball at just 2.8%. You could argue he is the best contact hitter in baseball, but he likely needs another season or two to prove it.

 

Hitting for power: Miguel Sano

Key statistics: 94.4 avg exit velo, 57.2 hard hit%, 21.2 barrels/BBE%

 

This one was really tough to decide between Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sano, but eventually I settled on Sano. I did this because of his age, and if you combined Sano’s power with Arraez’ contact then I think he’d be better than Cruz. It wasn’t easy, and the Twins easily have two of the top five pure power hitters in baseball.

 

The 94.4 average exit velocity for Sano was 2nd only behind Aaron Judge in 2019. Sano had the best hard hit% at 57.2% and then the final stat, barrels/BBE%, which means the percentage that he gets a barrel when he makes contact was also the best in the league. The final stat helped me decide Sano over Cruz because when Sano makes contact, the ball is going far.

 

Speed: Byron Buxton

Key statistics: 30.3 ft/sec, 3.74 sec/90 feet

 

This tool is probably the easiest one to decide on. The second fastest player was Jorge Polanco at 28.2 ft/second, 137 players away from Buxton on the leaderboard. Buxton’s speed has been his most utilized tool since he reached the majors as he has even been brought back from injury early just to be used as a pinch runner.

 

His sprint speed was third in baseball and his 90 foot split was second. He is one of the three fastest runners in baseball without a doubt. He also is a career 60-for-68 (88.2%) in stolen bases and once had a streak of 33 straight stolen bases without being caught.

 

Fielding tool: Byron Buxton

Key Statistics: 12 outs above average, 36.4 5 star catch%

 

Hello again, Byron. Another obvious choice here was picking Buxton for the fielding tool. It isn’t a surprise that the fastest player in the league also is one of the best fielders, and that speed plays a huge role in his fielding. His fielding has always been elite, and the statistics back that up.

 

His 12 outs above average rank sixth in baseball despite Buxton missing a lot of the season. Back in 2017 when he played the majority of the season he finished with an MLB high 23 OAA. That is where I hope he can get back to. His 36.4 five star (0-25%) catch% was first in baseball last season.

 

Throwing arm: Eddie Rosario

Key statistics: 8 outfield assists, 3.2 arm OAA

 

Rosario certainly gets his fair share of criticism for his fielding, and deservedly so, but his arm is good. We have seen him throwing out runners at home plate and second base ever since he entered the league, and that is certainly being recognized here.

 

Both his outfield assists and his outfield arm outs above average were top fifteen in baseball last season. His most memorable outfield assist came in a win against the Red Sox where he threw out J.D. Martinez at home plate for the final out.

 

Finals result:

Contact: Luis Arraez (.334 AVG)

Power: Miguel Sano (57.2 hard hit%)

Speed: Byron Buxton (30.3 ft/sec)

Fielding: Byron Buxton: (12 OAA)

Arm: Eddie Rosario (8 assists)

 

What do you think of the final player? Did I forget about someone? Let me know in the comments!

 

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[Otwins]

Asbber the best player in baseball

[ashbury]

Hello again, Byron. Another obvious choice here was picking Buxton for the fielding tool. It isn’t a surprise that the fastest player in the league also is one of the best fielders, and that speed plays a huge role in his fielding.

Speed helps, but there have been plenty of fast but bad outfielders. Byron is a good choice, though, because he almost never gets a bad read on the ball. He doesn't spend time outrunning his mistakes, instead he goes after and gets balls you think there isn't a prayer for.

 

_{^{A bad read on the fence or wall, now that's a trite but different subject.}}

 

[DocBauer]

My surprise alteration? Replace Buxton's defense with Arraez's. Because if I could have a player that had all those other abilities, I want to find a spot on the infield for him.