It’s hard to not like the man. The MLB needs more players like Derek Dietrich. Whether he’s smacking dongs, fending off a horde of bees, or rocking a sweet eye black mustache, he never ceases to entertain. In the words of Will Ferrell in Blades of Glory, it gets the people going! His success so far this season makes for a great story, as he was forced to settle on a minor league contract to begin the year. The utility man has seen the bulk of his playing time at 2B thus far, taking advantage of Scooter Gennett going down. With Scoot set to miss another month or so and the release of OF Matt Kemp, Dietrich should have a path to pretty consistent playing time.
Dietrich has been making the most of his opportunities this year, swatting 9 home runs and knocking in 22 runs across his 83 PA so far. This includes 4 home runs in his past 3 games played, so Dietrich has definitely been hitting his stride lately. He is slashing .257/.361/.686 through 33 games, while walking at a 8.4% clip. His strikeout rate of 16.9% is significantly down from his 25.4% mark last season. However, his 11.8% swinging strike rate is roughly on par with his 11.3% from last year so we may see his strikeouts creep up as he gets more PA’s. On the bright side, it is encouraging that he is swinging at pitches out of the zone 5% less (29.5% vs 34.4%) than he was last season. If this change sticks, we might be able to make a case that he can in fact cut down on his career 22.3% strikeout rate.
Hopefully the arrival of Senzel (Washington) can give the underachieving Reds offense a much needed spark. On paper, Senzel, Votto, Suarez, Winker, and Puig should be a pretty solid supporting cast. Since Senzel has been plugged into the lineup, the Reds have put up 11 runs, 9 runs, 5 runs, and 12 runs so we may be on to something.
Among hitters with at least 80 plate appearances, Dietrich’s .421 wOBA ranks 13th in the MLB and his 164 wRC+ is good for 14th best in the bigs. Small sample? Yes of course, but it is still encouraging to see. His .686 slugging percentage is 6th best in the league, and only Christian Yelich and Gary Sanchez have a higher ISO than Dietrich’s .429 mark. Gary Sanchez is actually a good player to compare Dietrich’s early season success to, as they have very similar numbers so far.
| PA | HR | RBI | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | BABIP | |
| Sanchez | 87 | 11 | 21 | .260 | .345 | .714 | .430 | 173 | .205 |
| Dietrich | 83 | 9 | 22 | .257 | .361 | .686 | .421 | 164 | .188 |
Of course his ISO, slugging, and other metrics are simply unsustainable over the course of a year. We expect them to come down significantly. On the flip side, Dietrich has managed a .257 average despite a minuscule .188 BABIP. Over 2,215 career plate appearances Dietrich has a .304 BABIP, so some serious positive regression should be in store for our favorite exterminator.
He is owned in 15.9% of ESPN leagues, and 34% of Yahoo leagues so he is still available in the vast majority of leagues. His ability to slot in at 1B, 2B, and OF makes him a valuable piece to help bring flexibility to your lineup. ZiPS has him down for a .255/.336/.467 slash line with 49 R, 16 HR, 49 HR, and 1 SB in 386 PA to finish the year.
