Slightly Better than Replacement Level
Two-way players were commonplace in the Negro Leagues. There were many reasons for this, most of which I have gotten into before. To keep it short, there were lots of two-way players in the Negro Leagues and that’s why the Babe Ruth to Shohei Ohtani narrative is a false one. When we are on this […]
The two-way player idea has always been tilted towards position players becoming pitchers. They can hit already, hopefully, and they have the important distinction of being a position player with a strong throwing arm. The ability of a middle infielder to throw the ball hard is often what gets teams talking about giving a position […]
Major League Baseball had, with a few exceptions, relegated the two-way player to the minor leagues by the 1920s. However, the opposite was true in the Negro Leagues. Major or minor, two-way players had been a fixture of every level of the Negro Leagues since the first leagues were formed and the 1920s were no […]
Previously in the two-way series I’ve talked about the death of two-way players in the white major leagues. This occurred after the success of Babe Ruth, and you would be correct in thinking that doesn’t make much sense. Major League Baseball teams got a taste of the value a player could provide as both an […]
Kyodo News – Jim Allen: Two-way players have become all the rage for Major League Baseball teams this offseason. Having seen the success of Shohei Ohtani MLB executives and decision makers are softening to the idea of players who want to pitch, and hit/play the field. That doesn’t mean they are on board with every […]