Jared Goedert: Late Bloomer or Placeholder

Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Jared Goedert is the starting 3^rd baseman for the Buffalo Bisons. He was signed to a minor league contract and an invitation to spring training, December 2013.

Jared Goedert was first drafted by the Cleveland Indians in 2003 deciding not to sign until Cleveland drafted him again in the 9^th round of the 2006 draft.  This time he did sign. He appeared 62 games in 2006 and hit a respectable .272/.332/.387 with 3 home runs.

Over the next 5 season in the Indians farm system, Goedert slowly moved up to Triple-A while hitting .291/.376/.514 with 98 home runs. He spent 2013 with the Pittsburgh Pirates Triple-A team and had a disappointing batting average but a decent ISO of .148 and was able to pile up the doubles with 32. For his minor league career Goedert has slightly above average ISO  and BABIP numbers, averaging 0.206 and 0.311 respectively.

During his time in Triple-A, Goedert has struck out twice as much as he walks. Goedert didn’t strike out that much during his time in the lower levels. In Triple-A he has struck out 20% of the time and walking around 9%, which hasn’t been good enough to get him to the majors.

However, Goedert has shown decent plate discipline with the Buffalo Bison this season. He is walking 11.9% of the time and striking out only 12.9% of the time. Over the past 10 games Goedert has hit .324/.342/.622 while hitting 3 home runs and driving in 9 runs.

Why is this important?

The Toronto Blue Jays have been relying heavily on the Bisons to fill numerous injures to start this season. Jonathan Diaz, Munenori Kawasaki, Chris Getz, Juan Francisco, Erik Kratz, and Steve Tolleson have all spent time with the Blue Jays after starting the season with the Bisons. Alex Anthopoulos wasn’t able to land an All-Star 2^nd baseman this off-season, he was able to sign a number of minor league veterans. These guys might be considered 4-A players or career minor leaguers and they may never make significant contributions to the major league club, but they provide the organization with depth that allows the club’s prospects to develop at the lower levels and to fill in for short periods of time during injures. Jared Goedert is 28 years old and no longer considered a prospect but he is a guy that can provide the Blue Jays with a solid bench guy that can add depth at every infield spot except for short.

Do you think that Goedert will be the next guy to be called up?