Every manager needs a jack-of-all-trades. It isn’t the position any big leaguer aspires to. You sit on the bench a lot. You’re day might consist of pinch hitting for the starting pitcher in the sixth inning or manning a corner outfield spot in the ninth. There might be an emergency start at third base and then five days off because the club doesn’t need you. Or a trip back to the minors for the third time in two months. It’s as hard a life as a well-paid big leaguer can have.
Nationals utility man Brian Bixler long ago learned to accept such a role. It is a job in the majors, after all. And as his diving catch in the ninth inning of Thursday night’s 3-1 win over the Reds showed, even the lowliest player on the 25-man roster can win some games for you if given the chance.
With a runner on first and one out in the ninth inning, Bixler, on as a defensive replacement for Jonny Gomes, made a sensational diving catch of as Ramon Hernandez line drive that was tailing away from him and towards the left-field corner. Closer Drew Storen had left a hanging slider over the plate. The runner on first, Ryan Hanigan, at least makes it to third and might have scored. The next batter, Brandon Phillips, singled – a hit that could have driven home the tying run.
Instead, Storen induced a game-ending pop out to shortstop for the final out. But that doesn’t happen if it not for Bixler, who on the Hernandez hit was stationed almost directly in front of the Cincinnati bullpen and needed to race 12-to-15 steps towards the foul line in 3.5 seconds, finally making the catch in front of the ExxonMobil ad.
“He’s a good athlete. He’s a terrific athlete,” manager Davey Johnson said. “I know I was a shortstop. I ran good. I think in my second big-league camp after I had a year in the big leagues [with Baltimore] Hank Bauer wanted me to go play center. I went out there and I was bored to death. I didn’t want to be out there. I was tempted to let balls drop. But Bix is kind of in the mold of [former Nats utility man Jerry] Hairston. He’s got a little more speed. But that was an unbelievable catch.”
The Hairston comparison is a huge compliment because – as Washington found out the first four months of this season – few handle that utility role better. Hairston played second base, shortstop, third base and center and left fields at some point during his time with the Nats before they traded him to Milwaukee on July 30. According to Fangraphs, over his career Hairston has a positive UZR/150 at second base (6.2 in 4,957 2/3 innings), shortstop (2.3 in 1,024 1/3 innings), left field (31.5 in 739 2/3 innings), center (7.2 in 943 innings) and right (4.9 in 436 1/3). Only at third base has he been below average (-7.9 in 767 1/3 innings).
“Jerry is a great player so if I can get compared to him I’m happy,” Bixler said. “That’s one thing I want to be able to do is play every spot like he does. He can play anywhere in the infield and anywhere in the outfield. That’s valuable for a team.”
Now, UZR/150 needs a few years of sample size so it’s not that useful for someone like Bixler, who has only played in 127 games total with Pittsburgh and Washington. For what it’s worth, he is rated well above average in the outfield (18.0) in 88 innings, third base (18.4) in 41 1/3 innings and second base (6.8) in 30 innings. He is slightly below average (-4.3) in 356 innings at shortstop. Again, that’s a limited sample size. But Bixler has some value to Johnson, who otherwise has the limited Gomes (that’s another post) or the hobbled Laynce Nix (achilles) to use late in games. He’s not really into that idea and with Roger Bernadina still at Triple-A Syracuse there’s nowhere else to turn right now. Bixler has been used as a defensive replacement in seven of the 15 games in August. Thursday that really paid off.
An infielder in the Pirates’ system, the 28-year-old Bixler finally started getting serious time in the outfield at Indianapolis in 2009, starting center thanks to his speed and then shifting to the corner spots.
“I like it out there. I think it’s fun,” Bixler said. “Compared to infield you can kind of just run around out there and just track balls. It’s a lot different. But it is fun to run freely and get good reads.”
The big difference compared to Hairston, of course, is at the plate. Hairston is by no means a star there. But he’s been a reasonable bet to post an OPS above .700 most years – acceptable for a utility player and spot starter. Bixler? He has a .482 career OPS and at 28 isn’t likely to do much better than his .504 OPS in 57 at-bats with the Nats. It’ll be tough to stick in the majors for long with those numbers.
But in 450 games at Triple-A Bixler’s slash line is reasonable: a .284 batting average, .357 on-base percentage, .401 slugging percentage and a .758 OPS. He’s also stolen 145 bases and is successful at a 76-percent rate. In the big leagues he is 6-for-7 on stolen-base attempts. Add in his defensive skills and you see why Washington was intrigued – even if Bixler’s roster spot will always be in limbo.
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