Kevin Kramer is becoming the second baseman of the future

The future of second base is looking bright for the Pittsburgh Pirates

In the second round of the 2015 Major League Baseball June Amateur Draft, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected left-handed hitting UCLA infielder Kevin Kramer. Despite primarily playing shortstop in college, after being drafted Kramer moved to second base. And now, he is emerging as the second baseman of the future for the Pirates.

Prior to the 2017 season the Pirates challenged Kevin Kramer to add power to his game. This came after he had strong on-base skills (.356 on-base in 2015 and 2016), but was struggling in the power department during the first two years of his professional career.

Kevin Kramer accepted the challenge the Pirates put in front of him and he became a power threat at the plate. After slugging just .374 in his first two professional seasons, Kramer saw this number jump to a robust .500 in 2017.

His ISO of .203 blew his career .085 ISO away. Additionally, the six home runs Kramer hit in 2017 were more than the four home runs he had total in 2015 and 2016. Prior to suffering a season ending hand injury in June, Kramer was also on his way to setting a new career high in doubles. At the time of the injury he had hit 17, and his career high was 29 at High-A in 2016.

To go along with the increase in power, Kramer remained an on-base machine in 2017. During the 2017 season Kramer posted a single season career best .380 on-base percentage. All of this led to Kramer posting a career best .388 wOBA and 141 wRC+ in 2017.

Most impressively, Kevin Kramer did all of this in his first season at the Double-A level. Many people will tell you the biggest jump in the minor leagues is between High-A and Double-A. Kramer made this jump and became a power hitter in the process.

This spring, Kevin Kramer has picked up where he left off pre-injury in 2017. So far in Grapefruit League play Kramer is 5-for-14 with five walks, a home run, two doubles, and two triples. While Spring Training numbers are useless, that does not change the fact that it is great to see Kramer’s power stroke continuing down in Florida.

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The 24-year-old Kramer may start the 2018 season back at Double-A. However, it should not be long until he reaches Triple-A. Assuming Kramer reaches, and has success at, Triple-A this season, it would not be a surprise to see him competing for the starting second base job as soon as 2019.

One day in the not so distant future Josh Harrison will no longer be a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. When this day comes, the Bucs have Kevin Kramer waiting in the wings as the team’s second baseman of the future.