George Springer has yet to gain full membership into the group of Major League Baseball’s superstars, but he is a game-changing talent regardless of his standing among the game’s elite.
The Houston Astros are about to haul in the benefits of that talent down the final stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs after missing it since early in the summer.
Springer returned to the team Friday after he missed more than two months with a fractured right wrist, and the boost at the top of Houston’s sagging lineup is something it desperately needs as the team tries to hold off the chasing Texas Rangers, now two games back in the American League West.
Before the injury, Springer was hitting .264/.365/.457 with an .822 OPS and 13 home runs in 76 games. The Astros were 45-30 with him in the lineup, and 28-31 without him. Their average runs per game also dropped from 4.5 to 4.1 in his absence, although more than just his injury factored into that dip.
“I don’t have any hesitation putting him back in the lineup, at the top. The offense functioned very well with him at the top,” manager A.J. Hinch told reporters Friday. “There’s no argument in wanting to get more base runners on base in front of [Jose] Altuve and [Carlos] Correa.
“He’s a dynamic player. I’d like to get his energy kick started from the very beginning. ... I know he’ll come out with a ton of energy and our lineup looks the best with him at the top.”
George's reaction to leading off for the @Astros today. pic.twitter.com/r2OXNcQavv
— Steve Sparks (@SteveSparks37) September 7, 2015
In August, the Astros were 12th in the league with a 94 wRC+, a .308 wOBA and a .301 OBP. In the 53 games Springer missed, the offense carried a .245/.308/.410 slash line with a .717 OPS. All four of those numbers are at or below the American League averages.
The 25-year-old right fielder—he’ll be 26 on Sept. 19—brings back useful dynamics, including power rarely seen from a leadoff hitter. Despite the fact that he strikes out 28 percent of the time—the league average is about 20 percent—he has strong on-base skills, which are helped by a .339 average on balls put into play and a 13 percent walk rate, both of which are well above the league averages.
Springer also had a 4.6 baserunning total going into Monday, according to Fangraphs. That was good for second in the AL during the first half of the season. Springer also had 14 steals in 17 attempts on top of using his legs to help him be one of the better-rated defensive right fielders in the league.
Springer is not Miguel Cabrera or a player of that ilk. He is not going to step in and totally morph the Astros lineup into an unstoppable force. Whatever problems the offense holds are bigger than just Springer.
But his boost does not have to be monumental to be felt in the standings. It can be modest over the course of the final four weeks, and that is because the offense just has to supplement one of the best starting rotations in the league. It does not have to lead the charge.
Houston’s rotation, now led by Dallas Keuchel, Scott Kazmir and Mike Fiers since the end of July, was one of the better in the league in the first half. It ranked fourth in Fangraphs WAR, and its 3.77 FIP was fifth.
In the second half, it has been flat-out the best in the league. It leads in fWAR (6.6), ERA (2.68), FIP (3.32), strand rate (81 percent) and gives up the second-lowest percentage of hard-hit balls (24 percent), per Fangraphs.
Keuchel is the only one of that trio to have been with the Astros all season, and he’s given them a 2.29 ERA, 2.81 FIP and a 177 ERA+. In eight starts since his trade from Oakland, Kazmir has a 2.77 ERA and 146 ERA+, both numbers slightly worse from what they were with the A’s, but still strong.
Fiers, who came over in the Carlos Gomez deal with the Milwaukee Brewers, had a 0.67 in four starts, including a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers, before being roughed up by the A’s on Monday. And Lance McCullers, in three starts since a brief minor league stint, has a 2.70 in those turns and a 3.07 with a 132 ERA+ in 17 starts for the season.
As you can see, the rotation is good enough to carry this team to its first postseason appearance since 2005. It just needs to not have to do it alone.
Springer provides that kind of charge to the offense, one that can take it from playing below its means to one capable of complementing the pitching in order make a run at the AL pennant come October.
All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.
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