That is both terrible and uplifting at the same time. You’re a liar if you say you didn’t crack a smile and pump a fist or two. Unlike Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli, Jose Iglesias of the New York Mets is not a one-hit wonder. He has 36 this season and 1,087 in his 12-year MLB career. He has started all four games coming out of the All-Star break and has been one of the most-added players over the last week. Let’s dig in.
Jose Iglesias is 34 years old, 5-foot-11, 195 pounds, and bats from the right side. He defected from Cuba in 2008 and signed with the Boston Red Sox the following year. In 2013, Iglesias was traded to the Detroit Tigers and played five seasons. Then the one-year deals started stacking one upon the other: Orioles, Angels, Red Sox, Rockies, Marlins, Padres, and finally now with the Mets.
Iglesias only spent two years in the minors before getting called up to The Show. The production didn’t make us sing OMG, but the strikeout rate was low and he stole double-digit bases. The power was essentially non-existent, with the ISO often being below .100.
In 2013, he accrued 382 plate appearances with the Red Sox and slashed .303/.349/.386 with three home runs and five stolen bases. The walk rate was 3.9%, strikeout rate was 15.7% and ISO was .083. For the rest of his MLB career, he exceeded 10 home runs only once and stole double-digit bases twice, with highs of 11 and 15 respectively.
In 100 plate appearances this season, the slash is .387/.430/.591 with three home runs and two stolen bases. The walk rate is 5%, strikeout rate is 9% and the ISO is a whopping .204! That’s a career high and there has only been one other time when the ISO was above .120, when it was .183 in 150 plate appearances with the Orioles in 2020.
Outside of the robust ISO number, the BABIP jumps off the page, as it is .407. We should expect Iglesias to revert back to who he is, but let’s make sure there haven’t been any fundamental changes that need to be accounted for.
The Statcast numbers show that he’s mashing the ball, as the average exit velocity is 87.3 mph. Throughout his career, Jose Iglesias usually languished in the 83-84 range, but back in that 2020 season with the Orioles, the EV was 86.2 mph. The launch angle is 10.1 degrees, and he’s posted a double-digit mark twice before, as well as the barrel rate of 3.6%.
The chase rate has always been high, and it’s at 38.9% this season. He’s swinging at 64.7% of pitches in the zone, above the career-average of 59.5%. The contact rates have always been excellent, and the 93.5% rate in the strike zone isn’t far off from historical norms. The swinging strike is only 7%, also within the prior range.
Iglesias is still in the 82nd percentile for sprint speed and he could chip a few here and there, but at 34 years old, I doubt he runs too often.
Jose Iglesias has multi-eligibility, which is nice for fantasy, and he’s on quite the heater. But, but, but….as with the stock market, we are at the precipice and I forsee a Wile E. Coyote-esque fall.
