Breaking News: Tyler Wade is Back!
Jeff Passan announced earlier today that the New York Yankees have acquired Tyler Wade from the Angels! I AM SO EXCITED!
Announcement Tweet:
Tyler Wade's 2022 Stats:
In 67 games with the Los Angeles Angels this year, Tyler Wade has hit to a .218/.272/.272 (.544 OPS/56 OPS+/57wRC+) extended triple-slash line. For extra-base hits, he had just 1 home run and 5 doubles along with 8 RBI's. It's nothing good, to be fair.
It's clear that the Yankees are not acquiring Tyler Wade for his offense. He's never been even an average offensive player. However, he has been a good fielder in his career and the Yankees could certainly use some help at shortstop.
IKF is tied for the 2nd most errors by a shortstop this season (11) and he's been a bit lacking of the expectations that we had for him this season. Marwin Gonzalez is also not the preferred option to play back-up shortstop (though his bat has been very good), and the Yankees have tried the Gleyber Torres shortstop experiment enough to know he's a full-time second baseman now. (And, moving him now is not going to help him during his resurgent year.) Tyler Wade will likely serve as the back-up shortstop option going forward.
Additionally, the Yankees have been having lots of problems on the base-paths this year and in especially in recent games. If you look at it on the surface, Tyler Wade has 8 stolen bases to 5 caught stealings this year. However, there is one thing you can't teach: speed. Tyler Wade is in the 92nd percentile in sprint speed in the MLB this year, and he's tied for 38th by sprint speed (29.0 feet/second). Meanwhile the next fastest Yankee- ironically IKF- is 78th by sprint speed (28.5 feet/second) and is 84th percentile on sprint speed.
I was convinced this was going to be Tyler Wade's breakout year when he was traded for a PTBNL to the Los Angeles Angels. You can read my post about it, here. Though, long-story short, I think Tyler Wade is the perfect utility player for a team. He's energetic, he can play anywhere, he seems to have a great clubhouse presence, and he's familiar with the Yankees organization.
For another fun story on Wade, check out this fun piece from MSN about why he's called "Ikeman" and is a popular player for Japanese fans.
Welcome back, Tyler Wade!
I'm PUMPED!
