Category Archives: Jerry Hairston

2012 Dodgers in Review #15: 3B/UT Jerry Hairston

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.273/.342/.387 267pa 4hr 1.5 fWAR B

2012 in brief: Well-traveled veteran filled in capably at second, third, and left field despite missing time with a hamstring injury and requiring season-ending surgery on his hip in August.

2013 status: Signed for $3.75m in final year of two-year contract.

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I’m really not sure that I’m happier with my initial take on any of the newly acquired Dodgers than I am with the way I saw Jerry Hairston:

Taken on its own merits, I don’t have a big issue with this signing. Hairston’s a useful enough piece, one who adds flexibility to a bench with his ability to play six positions with varying degrees of success, and on a team with so many questions in the infield, that flexibility will likely come in handy. His offensive performance has been all over the place – OBP of .384 in 2008 and .344 in 2011, but also .315 in 2009 and .299 in 2010 – but that’s generally to be expected from a bench piece, since you’re not acquiring him to be a starter. He’s being paid to generate about 1.5 WAR over the life of the contract, and since he put up 1.2 fWAR last year and 1.5 in 2010, it seems like he could at least earn the value. I don’t like the second year of the deal, though I admit that it was likely he’d have received that from someone else. (And, not that I care about this type of thing as much as some, he seems really excited to join the Dodgers, at least according to these quotes that SBNation‘s Amy K. Nelson collected.)

Oh, I’m not just talking about the fact that looks pretty accurate now, after the fact. I’m happy because that quickly devolved into another discussion of just what the hell the point of Adam Kennedy was. (A conversation which we revisited again months later.)

Seriously though, Hairston proved to be a valuable piece as he got off to a great start, just like the rest of the team. (Though not like umpire Tim Welke, who called Hairston out on May 2 in Colorado on what may be the worst call in the history of sports.) After a three-hit game in Chicago on May 4, Hairston was hitting .327/.421/.490 (albeit in just 58 plate appearances), having made starts at second, third, and left. Two days later, the headline picture on this site was of Hairston being helped into the dugout at Wrigley Field after injuring his hamstring trying to beat out an infield hit. Which, of course he was.

Hairston missed nearly three weeks and then returned as the team’s primary third baseman, collecting nine hits in his first four games (three starts) back. As May turned into June, Hairston shifted to second with Mark Ellis down, making each of his 22 starts in May at the keystone, and continued hitting well, topped by a massive game on June 9 in Seattle:

So, anything stand out here?


Jerry Hairston had himself something of a day, driving in five of the first six Dodger runs and scoring the other. The five runs batted in were not only a career high, they were the most by any Dodger since Matt Kemp also drove in five last July against Arizona.

Unfortunately for Hairston, it was all downhill from there. In 116 plate appearances up to and including that Seattle game, he had a line of .366/.435/.525 (along with a .389 BABIP). Immediately following, he went hitless in his next 26 plate appearances, hitting only .204/.272/.285 over the remaining 151 PA of his season. If he’d flipped those two halves exactly and ended up with the same season totals as he did, I’m guessing that people wouldn’t be quite as positive about his season. As we’ve been over so many times, nice first impressions count for so much more than they should, simply because you see that nice batting average on the screen every single night.

By July, Ellis was back and Hairston was seeing most of his time in left field and at third base, where his defense had become an increasing issue. Pushed exclusively back to third base by the acquisition of Shane Victorino, Hairston played only seven games in August before calling it a season thanks to a serious hip injury which later required surgery, opening the door for Luis Cruz to play every day.

Despite Hairston’s contributions, he played in only 78 games thanks to the multiple injuries, and while he’s expected to be ready for 2013, it’s hard to say that all of this doesn’t sound a little terrifying:

The procedure is arthroscopic, but not minor. His left leg was placed in traction to separate the leg from the hip far enough for arthroscopic tools to enter the joint. The torn labrum was repaired and an irregularity in the head or neck of the femur that caused the impingement was shaved to allow for smooth rotation in the joint. When the ball and socket don’t fit properly, friction tears the labrum.

Hairston also admitted that he’d been feeling pain in the area since May, and while the argument can be made that this is what caused his decreased productivity – I don’t doubt it had an impact – I’d say that when you read quotes like this…

“I tried to fight through it and not tell anybody, but my play started to be erratic. It was affecting my throws. I couldn’t plant my legs. My swing, I had no bat speed. At that point I felt I was hurting the team and I couldn’t live with myself hurting the team, not the way I was playing.”

…it’s just infuriating. Every year, you get players trying to be tough and playing through pain, and  all you end up with are worse performances and more serious injuries that may have been avoided. Have we learned nothing?

Looking ahead towards 2013, the Dodgers appear to be thinking of Hairston more as an outfielder, according to Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times, though I imagine that might depend more on how the winter shopping shapes the roster than anything. Let’s not forget, this is a thing that happened when Hairston played outfield this season (via Chad Moriyama):

All in all though, a decent enough season from a useful enough player with a contract that didn’t look that bad when it was signed and isn’t a burden now. Assuming the Dodgers can stay healthy enough that Hairston isn’t needed as an everyday player, he’ll be a nice multi-positional piece for 2013.

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Next up! At least we know who Elian Herrera is now!

Surgery for Jerry Hairston Changes Infield Equation

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I don’t want to talk about the hideous sweep the Dodgers just suffered at the hands of the Giants – and let it not be forgotten that the most likely path to the playoffs runs through the NL West rather than the wild card, so beating the Giants would seem to be somewhat important – and neither do you, so let’s not talk about it.

Instead, let’s talk about the ripple effect the somewhat unexpected news that Jerry Hairston is now out for the year following hip surgery has on the infield. (And despite how pleasant of a surprise Hairston was this year, he’s only going to end up playing in 78 games thanks to multiple injuries, once again showing the risk of signing veteran players in their mid-to-late 30s.)

When we talked about whether or not it mattered that Dee Gordon was getting healthy earlier this week, part of the discussion was predicated on the fact that Hairston’s injury was relatively minor, and on a team with a relatively set lineup which didn’t have a huge need for a traditional utilityman, he would be available to share time at third with Luis Cruz and/or be a safety net should the Cruz fantasy fall apart suddenly. That being the case, and since Hairston couldn’t play shortstop and Gordon was hardly necessary to slot back in, it made sense to keep the current configuration of Hanley Ramirez at short and Cruz at third.

Now… now, I’m not so sure about that. Ramirez hasn’t been awful at short, but he’s clearly a below-average defender there, and Cruz is average-to-above at the position. I think we’d all agree that the best defensive configuration would be to swap the two, and Hairston’s absence changes the equation going forward, because now, you pretty much have to play Cruz & Ramirez every day. Hairston’s not coming back. Juan Uribe barely exists and keeps his job only because of continued injuries to others. Adam Kennedy is a space-filler at best. Alex Castellanos can’t be counted on defensively yet, especially not in a pennant race. That means Cruz & Ramirez are your left side of the infield, and that being the case there’s a pretty solid argument to be made to play them where they best serve the defense. As we’ve seen just in the last few days, even poor defense that doesn’t get marked as errors can still hurt a team.

None of this changes what we said about Gordon the other day, of course. No matter how they’re positioned on the field, if someone’s losing playing time in order to get Gordon back on the field, it’s not going to be Ramirez. It’s going to be Cruz, and with solid defense along with two more hits last night, there’s absolutely no argument to be made for Gordon to be taking time away from Cruz right now. (“I’ll take sentences I never thought I’d write for $600, Alex.”)

So in the short term, it seems a swap would be a better defensive pairing. In the long term, it allows for easier slotting if Cruz does fall apart, because I’d rather have Gordon at shortstop (with Ramirez at third) than Kennedy & Uribe at third (with Ramirez at shortstop). The one thing I’ll admit that we cannot know is how much Ramirez enjoys playing shortstop and what the effect might be on him if he was moved; all indications are that he would be flexible to such a move, but he is hitting well and there’s always the thought that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

It might not be broken, and it probably won’t matter if other people don’t start hitting. In a race that seems likely to come down to the final day, however, even the slightest improvements matter, and this might be an easy way to give the defense a boost.

Disastrous Defense Dooms Dodgers to Defeat

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The ump is trying to tell Hairston where first base is.

I’m trying to figure out which asking price increased more today in Dodger Stadium. Was it the cost of a starting pitcher, since Chad Billingsley‘s elbow concerns suddenly put additional pressure on a rotation which was already looking for an improvement? Or was it the cost of Chase Headley, who homered for the second time in two days while Jerry Hairston was throwing the ball over the park at third?

I feel a little bad putting too much blame on Hairston here, because he contributed two hits and actually made several absolutely fantastic plays to get to hard-hit balls at third before making his two throwing errors. (A problem he was hardly alone on, since Juan Uribe & Mark Ellis each had throwing miscues of their own, plus an error on a grounder to Jamey Wright, plus one from Josh Lindblom which didn’t go in the books an error since the runner didn’t advance. The five errors was the team’s most since 1995.) Yet since he’d already told Don Mattingly earlier this season that he didn’t feel comfortable at the hot corner, it’s difficult to look at a third base future that has an inconsistent Hairston and the dreadful duo of Uribe & Adam Kennedy and think that Ned Colletti isn’t trying to lay down in the parking lot right now to prevent the San Diego bus from leaving.

The defensive problems made an unfortunate loser of Chris Capuano, who pitched well in Billingsley’s stead. Well, not only the defensive problems; if you’re really going to put up just two runs over six against against Jason Marquis, who wasn’t even good when he was good, then you’re not going to win a lot of games. Really, you can blame everyone other than Hairston & Andre Ethier for that, since the rest of the club went 3-26 against Marquis & friends. Oh, and Josh Lindblom gave up yet another homer, so there’s that.

Again, I’m really not sure that this team, as constructed, should be going all-in for this season. But I am sure that the front office doesn’t feel that way, so expect moves to come. Lots of them, and soon. Oh, and Roy Halladay & Cliff Lee are coming in the next three days. Good times!

Jerry Hairston Does It All

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So, anything stand out here?

Jerry Hairston had himself something of a day, driving in five of the first six Dodger runs and scoring the other. The five runs batted in were not only a career high, they were the most by any Dodger since Matt Kemp also drove in five last July against Arizona. Hairston may have been the hero, but he was hardly alone; every Dodger other than the still struggling Andre Ethier had at least one hit, with Dee Gordon, Elian Herrera, A.J. Ellis, & Tony Gwynn each contributing two singles apiece. Basically, all those hits that didn’t drop for the Dodgers last night against Kevin Millwood and friends were all being saved up for tonight.

Of course, to single out Hairston and the offense is almost to neglect Clayton Kershaw, who bounced back from a few less-than-vintage outings to thoroughly confuse the hapless Mariners, striking out 12 over seven innings. Kershaw’s night was somewhat spoiled by a three-run homer from Miguel Olivo in the sixth, but I’m pretty sure we’d all take one bad pitch against 12 strikeouts every single time. By the way, Todd Coffey finished up with a scoreless ninth, and I know how much everyone likes to hate him, but it’s worth noting that he’s made it through eight of his last nine outings without allowing an earned run. I’ve talked here about how unfair first impressions can be when it comes to baseball stats many times, and that’s really killed Coffey this season; giving up four earned runs while getting just three outs in his first three outings (on an injured knee, no less) means that it’ll take him all season to get that ERA down to a reasonable level – even if it doesn’t truly reflect who he is right now.

If anything, I hope Dodger fans noticed the great all-around effort; between the Saturday afternoon road game against a lousy interleague foe, the ridiculous FOX blackout rules which meant few people outside of Los Angeles (or Seattle) could watch, the Kings in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals between the Heat & Celtics, I’m gathering this may not have been the highest-rated Dodger game of all time.

Dodgers Facing Roster Choices as Injured Players Return

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At some point before Clayton Kershaw throws the first pitch of tonight’s game against the Astros at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers are expected to activate Jerry Hairston off the disabled list, since the veteran has reported no trouble with his sore hamstring in two rehab games for Albuquerque. On Sunday & Monday, Matt Kemp & Juan Rivera are expected to begin rehab stints of their own for the Isotopes, with Kemp scheduled to return to the Dodgers on Tuesday against Milwaukee and Rivera, healing far ahead of schedule, potentially returning later in the week. In addition, while we haven’t heard any news about a possible rehab stint for Juan Uribe, the news on his injured wrist is positive, as he’s been cleared to resume baseball activities and is eligible to return on Tuesday as well.

All of a sudden, the walking wounded are beginning to heal, and the Dodgers are going to have some roster decisions to make. If it was as simple as sending down those who were recalled to take the four spots in the first place, then the Dodgers would be bidding farewell to Justin Sellers (for Hairston), Jerry Sands (for Kemp), Elian Herrera (for Uribe), and Scott Van Slyke (for Rivera).

Of course, rarely is it ever that simple, for much has changed since they left, particularly in the middle infield. Mark Ellis is now lost until July due to his leg surgery, Dee Gordon probably would have been back in the minors by now if the injury situation hadn’t destroyed all roster flexibility, and Sellers may have his own injury concerns after being scratched from Wednesday’s lineup with leg numbness. That means the club that these veterans are returning to has no obvious second baseman, a shortstop who may not be up to the task, and could be without the main backup at both positions.

But let’s start with the obvious moves first. When Kemp & Rivera are both back, Van Slyke & Sands are each going back down. Van Slyke’s pinch-hit homer aside, neither has done a whole lot in limited time and neither is served better by riding the bench in the bigs than playing every day in the minors. I’m hardly Rivera’s biggest fan, but he’ll provide the righty alternative at first base that James Loney sorely needs and fit in with Bobby Abreu & Tony Gwynn into a left-field trio that could actually be productive if used properly.

For Hairston, well, you’ve got some infield decisions to make, and that depends in large part on Sellers. If Sellers goes to the disabled list, then he’s an easy swap for Hairston, though that comes with the downside of having to rely on Gordon (who may not be ready) and Hairston (who looked awful there in camp) at shortstop. That’d leave you with some combination of Hairston & Adam Kennedy at third and Ivan De Jesus & Herrera at second, with some mixing between the two groups. When Uribe returns, De Jesus would almost certainly be farmed out, since Herrera has played surprisingly well in his short time with the team.

If Sellers can avoid the DL, De Jesus would go down today for Hairston, probably leaving Herrera as the primary second baseman. When Uribe returns, you could send down Herrera (if you need to keep Sellers for shortstop or if he can’t keep up his hot start), or even Gordon, if he’s still struggling.

Honestly, I’d really like to see what happens if De Jesus would ever be given a real shot at every day play, and the absence of Ellis would seem to be a prime opportunity for that. But there seems to be almost no route for that to happen, not with the presence of at least five others who can spot at second and the organization’s complete reluctance to play him, calling him up only after squeezing the non-roster Herrera onto the 40-man.

Much depends on Sellers’ health, Gordon’s play, and whether this club can actually get through a full week without having to deal with another injury. But there’s always a bright side: the more healthy players you have, the less chance of having to see Aaron Miles again.