Shortstop
Geraldo Perdomo
After a horrible rookie season in 2022, Geraldo Perdomo got another chance at big league playing time, and it was a very roller coaster year. Although he showed some promise in the first half of the year, he struggled greatly down the line in the second half. But he was a solid defensive shortstop, and will get another crack at it in 2024.
Perdomo ended the 81st game of the season batting .296/.398/.451 with a .371 wOBA, and 134 wRC+. Perdomo was an on-base machine and had the 9th highest OBP among batters with at least 241 plate appearances (Perdomo had 241 at this point). That was higher than Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, and Yordan Alvarez. On top of having a strong batting average, he had a 13.3% walk rate. Plus he did not strike out often with a 17% K%.
However, after this point in the season, Perdomo fell off a cliff, slashing .197/.310/.269 with a .269 wOBA, and 65 wRC+. While Perdomo’s 12.6% walk rate and 17.7% strikeout rate were similar to his first half rates, his power dipped significantly as he went from a .155 ISO to just .072 in the second half of the year. His batting average on balls in play also dropped by nearly 100 points from .348 to .244.
What Perdomo to expect in 2024 is a massive question mark. He was in the 5th percentile or lower in exit velocity, hard hit rate, barrel rate, as well as all of Baseball Savant’s expected metrics. He is one of the few batters in the Statcast era to have a barrel rate under 1% in a full season. Defensively, Perdomo did provide a solid glove with only -3 DRS but +2 OAA. UZR/150 was also favorable to Perdomo at +4.3.
Perdomo ended the year with a .353 OBP, 99 wRC+, and +2.7 fWAR. If he can replicate that, he’ll be a valuable member of the Diamondbacks’ infield. But with such a steep decline in the second half, it’s far from a guaranteed. Perdomo’s seat could also be getting a little warm with Jordan Lawlar on the horizon. We shall see how Perdomo can perform in 2024: will we get the first half version of him, the second half version, or somewhere in the middle?