The Mets Recall Abraham Nunez, May Be Better Off Leaving Roster Spot Unfilled

I have no statistical metric to back up the following assertion but I believe Abraham Nunez is the best fielding third baseman in the history of baseball. Actually, that's not true, I do have a statistical metric to back that up. It's just that the metric I'll be using has nothing to do with his skill at nabbing balls roped down the foul line or with charging slow rollers and gunning fleet runners at first.

No, it's our old friend OPS+ that I'll be using as my evidence. Over parts of 12 seasons, now that he's been called up by the Mets, Nunez has posted a career OPS+ of 62, well below the league average figure of 100. For a guy to keep getting chances at the big league level despite hitting like the worst kid on a little league team, his glove simply must be so much better than everyone else that his bat just doesn't matter.

I'm afraid no one is that good with the glove, though. The guy who replaced Nunez with the Phillies, Pedro Feliz, probably comes closest but even he provides some power to go with his sparkling glove in balance of his otherwise putrid offensive skills. How Nunez continues to get jobs in the big leagues, he was hitting .133 in AAA, is one of the great mysteries of modern baseball.