Commentary | Rays' Kiermaier running his way into the hearts of baseball purists
ST. PETERSBURG
Kevin Kiermaier has been running for his life ever since he picked up a bat and ball.
"I was always the smallest guy on the team, so running was my thing. I had to do something the big guys couldn't do," he says.
Now 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds, the Tampa Bay Rays' 25-year-old center fielder isn't small, but by major league standards he is far from big.
So he is still running and running and has sprinted his way into the heart of Rays manager Kevin Cash.
His stats are not overwhelming (.248 batting average), but a closer examination reveals a truer value with 11 stolen bases in 12 attempts, his mastery at turning doubles into triples and his prowess in the outfield.
"He is pretty special. He changes the game for us every single night on defense with the ground he covers. He is non-stop hustling. He turns singles into doubles and races down everything out there," Cash says.
Kiermaier recently won his second straight Heart & Hustle Award given by the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association to a player on each team who demonstrates passion and a strong work ethic. It's the only MLB award voted on by former players.
"It's cool to be recognized for something like that," he says.
It's not by accident that Kiermaier is the Rays "Charlie Hustle" without the baggage.
Though hustle cannot be taught, Kiermaier has studied past players to refine what he considers a lost art.
"The game was played a lot harder back in the day. You watch highlights on TV, watch those guys go about their business and say that's the way you want to play," he says. "In baseball, we are sitting more than we are running, so if we have an opportunity to run guys should do it a lot harder and with a lot more effort than what it is nowadays. Effort is the one thing you can control."
A 31st-round pick in the 2010 draft, the second-year big leaguer could make a case that he is the Rays' most valuable position player. He ranks first in the American League in defensive WAR for his position and leads the majors with a 14.4 UZR, which attempts to quantify how many runs a player has saved or given up defensively.
Kiermaier also tops the AL with 10 triples with probably most of them being doubles for other players. If there is ever a way to measure inspiration, he might be the major league leader.
To compensate for the Rays' anemic offense, Cash has been working on bunting, and on Friday night Kiermaier laid a beauty down the third-base line against the Orioles.
"Bunting is not as easy as you think with all the good third basemen we have, and it's tough to do at the Trop because with the artificial turf the ball comes up a lot faster," Kiermaier says. "We have to keep working on bunting because we haven't been scoring a lot of runs. Most successful bunts are because they came as a surprise. In 2013, I had 19 bunts for base hits in Double-A, but you don't have the scouting reports there like you do up here."
One of the best things about Kiermaier is that he is not a guy who makes excuses. The Rays staggered back home this weekend after losing a series against the lowly Phillies while dropping 19 of their past 27 games.
Cash called it gut-check time, while Kiermaier implied it's on the Rays to turn things around.
"This is man's game, and you can't sit here and make excuses about all that is going on. We just have to execute on a higher level," he says. "We have been pressing as a group lately, and it's difficult to play when you are out there putting pressure on yourself. You just need to let it happen. We dug ourselves a hole, but if we do the little things it will turn around for us,"
Noteworthy
Tampa Bay has pinch-hit more than any team in the American League, so when Tim Beckham came to bat in the eighth inning of a tie game Friday night against Baltimore it wouldn't have been a surprise if Cash sent someone up to hit for the struggling shortstop. He has done it before. But Cash said he never thought about it, and Beckham delivered what proved to be the game winner.
What Cash might have been thinking is that the Rays are 2-37 when trailing after seven innings, and those two victories came on Beckham go-ahead hits. Among Beckham's 18 RBIs this season, 13 have come in the seventh inning or later.
"Beck has showed me time and time again he's got kind of a flair for the big hit," Cash said.
Beckham said it's a team game, and if the Rays pinch-hit for him he would've been pulling for the guy.
Putting Cash's confidence in Beckham in perspective, going into Saturday's game the Rays led the American League with 102 pinch-hit at-bats, which is way above the league average (54) and 20 more than second-place Cleveland. However, Rays pinch-hitters had a combined .216 batting average, while Beckham is hitting .236.
The thing about the former No. 1 draft pick is that Beckham is loaded with athleticism, and you can't help but wonder what he could so with some consistency. He is hitting .250 on two-strike counts (18-72), way above the .177 MLB average.
This story was originally published July 25, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Commentary | Rays' Kiermaier running his way into the hearts of baseball purists."