Coco Crisp's Move To Left Field Is What's Best for Athletics

So, the news is out — Coco Crisp is moving to left field. It’s a move that is probably the best thing for both Crisp and the Oakland Athletics.

The move should keep Crisp healthier in the long run, and that will only help the A’s if they want to get back into the postseason. Major League scouts agree as well, according to this story on ESPN.

There are other factors about why moving Crisp makes sense though, and they go far beyond health concerns.

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Our friends at Swingin A’s took a brief look at how the switch could impact Crisp in terms of one defensive metric — defensive runs saved. It’s brief read and it touches on whether or not Crisp should make the shift. It takes the likely scenario of Craig Gentry and Sam Fuld moving from a left field platoon to a center field one and analyzes its impact.

It may seem like a superfluous move considering that Gentry, Crisp and Fuld are cut from the same cloth. They’re all fast. They’re all capable of flashing the leather. And they rarely make mistakes in the outfield.

The difference, however, is in their respective arm strengths. Crisp has never been known for his arm. Over the course of his 13-year career, Crisp has just 29 outfield assists from center field. Gentry has 17 from center field and Fuld has five. For comparison’s sake, Josh Reddick has 33 in his six-year MLB career from right field.

But solely looking at outfield assists is a bad way to evaluate Crisp’s overall arm ability in center field. He does make plays with his arm, like that one time he threw out Mike Trout. Instead, it’s time to look at an advanced statistic that serves as a better indicator of his arm strength.

Crisp is 4 percentage points below the Major League average for holding base runners after base hits or fly outs with less than two outs — 40.2 percent to 44.9 percent. He is also throwing out 0.8 percent of base runners in those situations, which is 1.1 percent below the Major League average.

Assuming the A’s do go with a platoon of Fuld and Gentry in center field, Oakland will be moving a better arm into center field.

Fuld is similar to Crisp in holding base runners on after base hits or fly balls with less than two outs (39.7 percent), but has a far better throw out rate than Crisp — 3.3 percent of base runners thrown out. Based on these metrics, Gentry has the strongest arm of the trio, throwing out a base runner 3.8 percent of the time. Gentry is also better at limiting base runner damage by holding 46 percent of runners at their respective base.

In essence, moving the platoon from left field to center field makes more sense if the A’s want to maximize their defensive potential.

Though, it’s not like Crisp is a bad left fielder either.

Crisp has made 232 appearances in left field, and has nine outfield assists to his credit. He also has a base runner hold rate of 64.6 percent from left field, which is better than the Major League average (63.9 percent). Crisp is still below the league average when it comes to throwing out batters (1.8 percent to 2.3 percent), but the metric, despite its lack of sample, shows that Crisp’s arm in more suited for left field than it is center field.

Sure, seeing Coco Crisp not playing center field will take some getting used to from both a fan and player perspective. It is, however, the smart thing to do if the A’s want to make some noise in 2015.

Next: Oakland Athletics' Marcus Semien Impressing Early in Spring Training

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Coco Crisp’s Move To Left Field Is Best For the Oakland Athletics

By Paul Delos Santos | Mar 8, 2015