After going 3-7 with two walks in Saturday’s doubleheader, Jonathan Villar sits with an .800 OPS for the season. His 120 OPS+ is a career high and his solid play throughout the season has earned the trust of Luis Rojas, who not only has made Villar a regular with all of the infielders healthy, he’s also installed him as the team’s leadoff hitter.
A switch-hitter, Villar has hit 14 of his 17 homers as a LHB. While his power is nowhere near as strong batting righty, so far he is compensating with the hits falling in as a RHB. For the year, he has a normal .298 BABIP while batting lefty. But from the right side, his BABIP checks in with a .385 mark.
Speaking of BABIP, in his last 34 games, Villar has a .953 OPS thanks in large part to a .430 BABIP.
As the Mets try to push themselves back into playoff consideration, they do not have the luxury of questioning how a hitter is putting up his results. They have to ride Villar’s hot streak as long as they can, hoping he can make it last another three weeks. Good luck with that Villar and try not to run into any more outs on the basepaths while you’re doing it, too.
Villar is having a good year. He has a fWAR of 2.6 that is the sixth best of NL third basemen. It is a nice rebound from his 2020. His best season was 2019 when he had a 4.1 fWAR. His BABIP is .325 and career BABIP is .338 so it isn’t out of line this year. Baty is still another year away. The Mets should give a contract to Villar for 1/ 6m in 2022. He earned it.
I’m not sure how well the advanced stats take into account base running but to the eye test Villar is awful. His stolen base percentage is bad, he leads the league in being picked off (by a lot) and he makes a lot of dumb mistakes running into outs on the bases. During his hot streak the other night when he got another hit Gary exclaimed “They just can’t get him out” and my wife who knows baseball but not at the level of most that regularly visit this blog said “except on the bases” so it’s obvious even to the casual fan. Seems to me that he’s not nearly as valuable as he seems. He also hasn’t looked good in the field. The play that Stroman made yesterday covering third and tagging out Soto overshadowed the fact that Villar completely missed and underhanded flip and should have turned a double play. Yeah, he may be hitting but he’s also doing a lot of bad things on the field.
I believe Bob P is going a tad too far in his criticism of Villar.
Let me start that I had no faith in Villar before the season. What little I saw of him last year led me to think I he would be undisciplined at the plate and allow more runs to score than he prevented on defense. He has been a steady player on both sides of the ball and has gotten more disciplined at the plate as the season has progressed. He’s one of the most dependable hitters no the team… doesn’t chase, rarely takes an at bat off, and generally has produced quality ABs more than any other player. (Pillar too)
Defensively Villar has been a rock. C’mon, Bob P, what do you expect the guy to do? OK, he blew that play at second, but those plays have been way more rare than what I expected… he’s about three times better than JD or McNeil at third, and the fact that he can play the other two IF positions makes him invaluable. If every player in the Mets optimized their season as Villar has done, the Mets would be ten games in front… he might be the team MVP… not bad for a utility bench player…
I’ll stick to my guns on this one. I may be being tough on his fielding but he’s made 4 errors in the last 9 games which isn’t good. There’s also no denying his base running has been awful. Between being picked off, caught stealing and boneheaded plays rounding bases and getting thrown out he’s negated some of his hot hitting. He’s clearly been a plus for the team but theres no way I agree he’s the team MVP. Alonso, Nimmo, Stroman and deGrom in half a season have all been more valuable in my opinion. I agree with your last sentence though – he’s been better than his expected role as a utility player.