Michael Siani Has Earned an Article
22/05/2024 15:00
The Cardinals needed someone to replace Edman's defense in center. They've gotten it. So far.
I love Albert Pujols.
I know that's a weird sentence to start an article about Michael Siani but bear with me.
I love the home runs. The excellence. The batting prowess. The ESPN commercials. The records. The lore and history. The moments.
I could say the same for Stan Musial, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Ozzie Smith, Yadier Molina, and others. Across the front of my desk are bobbleheads – almost all given to me. Red Schoendienst, Ted Simmons, Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, and Bruce Sutter, to go along with a few of the names mentioned above.
It takes something truly special to make it onto my desk. We recognize and celebrate excellence in this game. It gets most of the headlines. It gets the attention. It gets the collectible figurines.
There's another side of me that loves the opposite kind of player. Not necessarily the bad players; the "other" players. The nameless many who have had to fight and claw and scrape their way to being able to say they were a Major Leaguer. The players whose names we not only have forgotten but we never even really knew.
Everyone knows the name Ozzie Smith. Who remembers Keith McDonald, Cody Stanley, Jarrett Hoffpauir, or Colin Porter?
Outside of a game article or weird facts – does anyone remember what Keith McDonald did? I was watching – these kinds of players come and go every year in relative anonymity. The lucky few might make their way into a highlight real or a game recap article. Few get actual words devoted to them.
But sometimes they deserve them. Sometimes their contributions, however small, are just what the team needs for a certain time.
That's Michael Siani. A player that I have tried to cut from the roster multiple times over the last year, but has been there when the club needed him to fill a role. A player we'll likely forget about in a few months.
Let me set expectations here. I'm not going to do a normal analysis here. I'm not going to go in-depth into Siani's hitting profile, his Statcast rates, or his prospects as a player. These things would raise a bunch of obvious red flags that would ruin the point of this post. Michael Siani is an incredible baseball player – relative to the rest of the world – who probably has very little future in Major League baseball.
What he does have is one skill that has translated to the highest level of competition at just the right time. And now he's had a moment that's worth remembering.
Let's start with the skill, as that's the thing that created the moment and ultimately inspired this post.
The Cardinals are not the first team that Siani reached the majors with. In 2022, the Reds, presumably in need of a backup centerfielder, called him up. He appeared in 9 games and received 24 plate appearances. He singled four times. He struck out 7 times. He was caught stealing. That was his line and it seemed likely that would be the only Major League statistics on his Baseball Reference page.
Things only got worse for Siani from there. In '23 in Louisville, Cincy's AAA affiliate, Siani hit .228 with a .354 slugging percentage. He walked quite a bit – 15.2% – but that was only worth an 80 wRC+ in a strong offensive environment.
The Reds, having seen his offensive ineptitude firsthand, decided that was enough. They designated him for assignment on August 31, 2023.
At the time, the Cardinals lacked centerfield depth in AAA. They had space on their 40-man roster. In a move almost no one noticed, the Cardinals claimed him and quickly found a use for him.
Late in 2023, when the Cards were far out of the NL Central race, they placed anyone with a hangnail or hemorrhoids on the IL. They needed warm bodies to fill roster spots. Siani got the call. He didn't impress. The team gave him 5 PAs. He did nothing with him.
Over the winter, I didn't see the point in keeping him around. The Cardinals obviously wanted to move Tommy Edman to center. They had Dylan Carlson. They were so confident in their outfield depth that they traded away Tyler O'Neill. Nootbaar had played center well enough to function as the third CF'er even if Edman or Carlson were out. Walker, Burleson, and Donovan were around to cover the corners. Victor Scott was the Cardinals' future in center and he had a strong defensive reputation.
Siani seemed redundant. Unnecessary. A pointless player holding a 40-man roster spot that would be better given to someone else who could make a difference on the MLB roster if the club needed them. I would have cut him and replaced him.
Somehow he survived the winter and came with the club into Spring Training.
I understand the reason a little better now. Edman had surgery that went unreported and there were – and are – unanswered questions about his recovery. He's out. For how long? No one knows. Maybe for another few weeks. Maybe forever at this point.
Carlson was then run over by the raging bull that is Jordan Walker, professional outfielder. That put the team's primary backup centerfielder out for the first month of the season and stalled his offensive recovery. His career is now teetering on a razor's edge.
Nootbaar started the season injured and the club was hesitant and remains hesitant to use him in center this season. (Despite acceptable stats at the position last year.)
The team tried to accelerate Victor Scott's arrival to the majors and that blew up in their faces.
All a player on the 40-man roster needs to find themselves with significant playing time in the majors is an open door.
The Cardinals' 2024 center field position has had its front door kicked in, broken windows, and the garage door locked open. Anyone could just walk in there and steal the golf clubs… I mean, playing time… from the expected positional depth.
That's how much had to go wrong for the Cardinals to get down to Michael Siani. All he had to do to earn a roster spot and playing time early in 2024 was exist.
Need opened the door for Siani on the roster. His play has brought him increasing playing time.
I knew that Siani was supposed to be a pretty good defender. I'm sure that was a big part of why the club snatched him up from the Reds. I doubt they knew just how good Siani was with the glove.
Right now, Siani has a +7 OAA as an outfielder. He is +6 in center. That's second in baseball among all outfielders to Daulton Varsho. Siani has 50 fewer outfield attempts. He is the 4th best fielder in all of baseball overall.
It's not a good idea to do this but since this is a feel-good piece, I will. If you project Siani's outfield attempts to match Varsho's, giving him imaginary innings, his OAA would be +11. That would land him just behind Marcus Semien as the best in baseball at any position.
Yes, Michael Siani is playing like he's one of the best defenders in all of baseball.
The Cardinals designed their roster this season around the presumption of excellent centerfield defense. They needed it with a starting rotation that was hired to provide more innings than production. The club expected Edman to provide that outfield excellence; many projected him to be a Gold Glove-caliber defender in center. That was always a stretch to me, but it wasn't impossible.
In 127 attempts Edman provided just a +5 OAA in center field last season. Over a full season, that could have landed him in contention for a Gold Glove in the NL.
Siani has already surpassed him in about half the attempts.
It's taken a while for Siani to secure his place in center. But he has now. And the club is better for it.
It hasn't come with a huge loss in offense. Last year, Edman provided a .306 wOBA. That's a 92 wRC+. If you remove his BABIP-fueled and completely unrepeated rookie explosion, Edman has provided a career .307 wOBA with a 95 wRC+. He averages about 3.0 fWAR per season.
Siani has a .278 wOBA and an 80 wRC+. Is that good? No. It's bad. Really bad. But when you add in his spectacular defense, Siani is at .7 fWAR. If he maintained his current rates over 400 PAs this season – likely what he would get if Edman doesn't come back – he would finish at 3.1 fWAR.
The gap between what Edman likely would have given them and what they've actually received from Siani is pretty negligible.
For now.
I wouldn't buy stock in those numbers. They are based on a defensive production rate that Siani, despite his obvious skill, is not likely to maintain. And his offense, which has pretty much been non-existent, isn't likely to get any better. (Though there is that walk rate in his history. He just can't do enough damage to stop pitchers from throwing in the zone.)
As of right now, Siani has contributed to this team. He's been productive. He's been necessary. He's helping them win.
That brings me to the moment.
I turned on the game on Monday night late. It was 1-0 Cards when I started watching. With Gray on the mound, that was enough for me to commit. They've been winning and I'm willing to engage when I can. I immediately left the TV on and grabbed the dog to take her out. When I came back inside after watching her chase rabbits and not go #2 a few minutes later, the score was 5-0. My first thought? WHAT HAPPENED? I was outside for mere moments and they scored 5 runs? Someone must have done something huge. I expected a homer from Goldy. Something from Burleson, who has been hitting well. Nootbaar, maybe?
I rewound the tape and there it was. Baltimore's Dean Kremer left a 4-seam fastball middle in. Siani turned on it. 103 mph. 25-degree launch angle. That's enough to carry over the right field wall. It was enough to secure a win for the Cardinals against a good Baltimore team.
That's 5 wins in the club's last 7 games. That carries them to half a game behind the Pirates. The Cards have momentum at just the right time. Michael Siani is a big part of it.
He's provided the defensive production the team expected. Now, he's providing the moments the team needs.
Will it continue? Who knows. Probably not. For now, though, Michael Siani has earned the attention!
