Freddy Galvis flashed some solid power in 2016 and is an elite defender, but one hole in his game may cause the Phillies to look somewhere else.
The impending Phillies shortstop logjam has been written about to no end as J.P. Crawford steadily rises through the minors. Last spring, Crawford was in the major-league camp alongside current major-league shortstop Freddy Galvis. Crawford will be there again next spring and should be in Philadelphia sooner rather than later.
Galvis knows Crawford is creeping up on him, even if he tries to push it aside. Galvis told Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly, “I hear his name. He’s a good player. But I’m here to play baseball and let the manager and general manager make the call. Competition is good.” Last spring, Galvis had to improve on his defense to help quell some of the calls for Crawford, which he did, lowering his error total from 17 in 2015 to eight in 2016. This spring, Galvis will need to focus on getting on base more often if he wants to stay in the starting lineup.
Even when he was in the minor-leagues, Galvis never was great at getting on base. Out of his first five seasons in the minors, he finished with an on-base percentage of .300 or higher just twice, with his highest being .324. To put that into perspective, Fangraphs considers a .300 OBP poor and .320 average.
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While an average OBP is acceptable juxtaposed alongside Galvis’s strong defense, he has not reached that clip in the majors. Galvis has spent time in the major-leagues in five different seasons, and his OBP has been above .280 in just two of those seasons. His .302 OBP in 2015 was the 23rd-worst among all qualified hitters, and that was Galvis’s career high. This past season, Galvis’s .274 OBP was the worst among all qualified hitters.
Galvis struggles to get on base partly due to his lackluster batting average but also due to poor plate discipline. In 2016, Galvis drew walks in just four percent of plate appearances while striking out in 21.8% of plate appearances. That strikeout rate is below average and his walk rate is just downright awful according to Fangraphs.
Even though Galvis did hit 20 home runs in 2016, it was not nearly enough to offset the other holes in his offense. Overall, he was worth just 0.8 wins above replacement on offense and carried a poor wRC+ of 74.
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Comparing Galvis to his competition up the middle – presumably Crawford and current second baseman Cesar Hernandez – he lags behind the two by a large margin.
Getting on base is Crawford’s calling card. In addition to possessing a solid hit tool, his terrific plate discipline is another huge part of why he can post such a high OBP. In 36 games with Double-A Reading this year, Crawford walked more than he struck out as he walked 18.1% of the time compared to striking out 12.7% of the time. This caused his OBP (.398) to be strikingly higher than his batting average (.265).
While Crawford’s walk rate fell to 10.9% after his promotion to Triple-A, it was still above average and helped him maintain a respectable OBP of .328 despite having a .244 batting average. This discipline should help Crawford get on base even when he hits a slump.
Considering how much Phillies fans have been clamoring for Crawford, it’s hard to imagine not immediately becoming the starting shortstop among arriving at the major-leagues,. This would leave Galvis in a battle with Hernandez for playing time at second base. Hernandez had a .371 OBP in 2016, leading all Phillies with 70 or more plate appearances. Considering the Phillies had the second-worst OBP of all teams this year, it’d be hard to put the guy who got on base the most on the bench. This would leave Galvis out of a starting spot for two players who blow him away in terms of getting on base.
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Freddy Galvis is a strong defender with Gold-Glove potential. However, if he struggles to get on base, he may wind up being replaced for someone who is a better option in that regard.