In Jonathan Villar, the Miami Marlins see a prototypical leadoff hitter. They see a player who can steal a lot of bases and hit his share of home runs.
"He's a guy who does a little bit of everything," Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.
They also see a middle infielder who very likely will be their starting center fielder.
The Villar-to-center experiment began at the onset of spring training, which came to a halt on Thursday amid the growing coronavirus pandemic. His sample size in the outfield, both in the big leagues and this spring, is small. The seven-year MLB veteran has played just eight games and 43 career innings in center field, most recently in 2017 with the Milwaukee Brewers. He had minimal action in nine spring games where he played center.
But even with the limited sample size, the Marlins were encouraged by his progress before spring training was suspended.
"He looks pretty natural out there," Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said last week. "I don't know what it looks like from you guys in the press box, but his breaks and his jumps look natural. He has a natural glide to the ball out there. We didn't have any reservations about his ability to play out there because we had seen video of him out there doing it and our scouts had seen him. But until you see it yourself, you want to make sure. It seems like every day, he's more and more comfortable out there. No reservations at this point."
With baseball on hold for the near future, let's dive deeper into Villar and what value he brings to the Marlins.
