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Phillies 2019 season preview: Shortstop Jean Segura

By Matthew Landmesser

LAKELAND, FLORIDA - MARCH 07: Jean Segura #2 of the Philadelphia Phillies bats in the first inning against the Detroit Tigers during the Grapefruit League spring training game at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium on March 07, 2019 in Lakeland, Florida. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
LAKELAND, FLORIDA - MARCH 07: Jean Segura #2 of the Philadelphia Phillies bats in the first inning against the Detroit Tigers during the Grapefruit League spring training game at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium on March 07, 2019 in Lakeland, Florida. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /
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LAKELAND, FLORIDA – MARCH 07: Jean Segura #2 of the Philadelphia Phillies throws to first base in the second inning against the Detroit Tigers during the Grapefruit League spring training game at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium on March 07, 2019 in Lakeland, Florida. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
LAKELAND, FLORIDA – MARCH 07: Jean Segura #2 of the Philadelphia Phillies throws to first base in the second inning against the Detroit Tigers during the Grapefruit League spring training game at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium on March 07, 2019 in Lakeland, Florida. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

Segura’s Role in 2019

One world has been thrown around all over sports media about Segura and his role to the Phillies: stability. I mentioned in my take on Cesar Hernandez about how Segura will impact Hernandez specifically, only striking out 10.9% of the time last year. Gabe Kapler will definitely use this to his advantage, due to the Phillies striking out the third-most in the league in 2018.

Segura does get on base a lot for a guy who walks about 30 times a season. Kapler will need to work with him to get that number up, but that’s Kapler’s M.O. He brought the Phillies up 88 walks from 2017 to 2018, going from 11th to 3rd in the NL.

Philadelphia Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies /

Philadelphia Phillies

Segura is one of those hitters that pisses off opposing teams. All he does is hit, and it’s not always pretty. MLB StatCast uses hit probability, exit velocity, and launch angle to determine the success rate of certain batted balls becoming hits, and uses this to compute a player’s expected batting average (xBA). Segura hit .304 in 2018, but his xBA was only .272, based off the quality of his contact.

Segura is one of those guys who makes contact and the ball just finds a hole or an open patch of grass to drop. I hated pitching to guys like that. He doesn’t whiff either; less than 13% of the time, while the league average is 24%.

As for in the field, I think Segura’s veteran presence paired with Cesar up the middle will be huge for the whole infield. Having a revolving door at shortstop was a huge problem for the continuity of the defense, so getting a 130+ games player in Segura will do wonders for everyone.

As long as he can cut down the errors, I think this year’s defense will be a large improvement over last year.

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