Pittsburgh Pirates: What Makes Josh VanMeter Intriguing

Last week the Pittsburgh Pirates traded for utility man Josh VanMeter. What about VanMeter’s game makes him an intriguing bench player to have?

In a move that came as a surprise, late last week the Pittsburgh Pirates traded for utility man Josh VanMeter. This came after VanMeter was designated for assignment by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Pittsburgh Pirates already have a plethora of utility players. Diego Castillo and Cole Tucker will make the Opening Day roster, while fellow utility men Hoy Park and Michael Chavis continue to battle for a roster spot as well. Also, VanMeter is a left-handed hitter. The Pirate roster is one heavy with left-handed hitters. This also added to the surprise of Ben Cherington acquiring VanMeter from Arizona.

With no real apparent need for a player like VanMeter on the roster the question became why are the Pittsburgh Pirates interested in him? Well, there would appear to be two main reasons for this. VanMeter’s ability to draw walks and hit the ball hard.

Last season VanMeter hit for just a .212/.297/.354 slash line in 310 plate appearances with the Diamondbacks. However, he was able to draw walks at a 10.6% clip. This was the second time in three MLB seasons (11.2% in 2019) that VanMeter’s walk rate was over 10.5%. Any walk rate per 10% for a hitter is considered to be above average.

VanMeter’s average exit velocity last season was 89.3 MPH. This was a full MPH higher than the league average and landed him in the 71st percentile of baseball in average exit velocity. He also posted a hard-hit rate of 36.8%, which was also better than league average.

Hitting the ball hard is nothing new for VanMeter. For his MLB career VanMeter has an average exit velocity of 89.6 MPH, and he has never posted an average exit velocity below 89 MPH. His career hard-hit rate of 37.3% his 2% higher than the league average. In fact, his 36.8% hard-hit rate last season was the lowest of his career.

While VanMeter has hit for just a .212/.300/.364 slash line with a 75 wRC+ in his career, there appears to be some untapped potential in his bat. If VanMeter can continue to hit the ball hard and draw walks at an above league average rate he can be a productive bench piece for the Pirates this season. While on the surface the trade may have looked a bit confusing it is easy to see why the team was intrigued by VanMeter.