Prospect Retrospective: Ehire Adrianza

 One of our readers commented in a previous post that Ehire Adrianza carved a remarkable and surprisingly lucrative professional baseball career out of the last roster spot of every team he's been a member of.  Once upon a time, I had high hopes for Adrianza as a prospect in the Giants minor league system.  While he never became the player I hoped for, he managed to spend time on a MLB active roster for nine straight seasons starting in 2013, a remarkable record for longevity.  On top of that, he has signed contracts paying at least $1 M in each of the last four seasons.  Let's take a look back at his professional career and see how it developed.

Adrianza was an international free agent from Venezuela signed by the Giants in 2006.  He was a lean-framed SS who made his professional debut at at 16 the same year and hit just .156 but with a 15.5 BB%.  He repeated the DSL in 2007 and improved his slash line to .241/.351/.325.  What got my attention, though was another strong walk rate of 13.6% while halving his K rate to 10.3%.  He also stole 23 bases and hit 17 doubles in 302 PA.  Hey!  A SS who can get on base, steal a base and play great defense is a valuable commodity.  I also felt like he could develop future power.

His "breakout" season was 2010 with A+ San Jose.  His .256 BA was not so impressive, but walked 9.3% with 17.1% K's and stole 33 bases.  Scouting reports said he had excellent range at SS with an adequate arm. I again envisioned a player who could at least provide great defense at SS while getting on base and stealing bases at the top of the batting order.  I still felt the power might come as the body matured.  John Sickels at Minor League Ball had positive things to say about him in some notes from 2013 but was quite bearish on any future power development, which is what I kept hoping for.  While praising his defense, Sickels called Adrianza "a switch-hitter, he has better-than-average speed and is an effective stealer.  He also controls the strike zone reasonably well, doesn't strike out that much, will take a walk and is a good bunter, all positive traits of course.  The problem is lack of power:  he doesn't have any and even when he makes solid contact the ball doesn't go very far."  

Unfortunately, the power never developed and the SB's dropped off at higher levels.  The numbers were good enough to stay in the organization but not enough to project a significant MLB career.  By the time he made his MLB debut in 2013, Brandon Crawford was firmly ensconced as the Giants SS.  Adrianza rode the shuttle to Fresno for the next 4 seasons.

His time with the Giants ran out in 2017 and he hit the waiver wire landing with the Twins where he found more playing time.  His first 7 digit contract was for $1 M in 2018 and he earned an estimated combined $7 M in 6+ years of service time.  He is currently a free agent and was by MLBTR as being in the mix for an open starting SS position with the Twins.

Adrianza's stat lines have been remarkably consistent throughout his minor and major league career.  His career slash line of .244/.313/.379 with 8.0 BB% and 19 K% is pretty much what he was doing in the low minors back in the 2000's.  

So, what held the power back?  I think the answer is in his approach.  If you look at his GB/FB ratios through the minors, they were up and down but mostly up in the 1.5 range.  I'm pretty sure the Giants coaches, like me, envisioned him as a potential leadoff batter with on-base/SB skills and taught him to slap down on the ball and let the magic of BABIP combined with his better than average walk rate get him on base where his speed would be a plus.  Unfortunately that skill set doesn't play in today's major leagues and the SB's disappeared anyway.

Ehire Adrianza's career is remarkable for it's longevity.  He has now been a professional baseball player for 15 years.  He's shown that a fringe player can have a long professional baseball career and make a comfortable living while doing it.