Infielder Riddle hopes to stick in CF
JT Riddle had never played the outfield before he joined the Kentucky Wildcats for his freshman season in 2011.
In high school, Riddle was exclusively an infielder and pitcher and he even committed to Kentucky to be a two-way player.
As a freshman, Riddle wasn’t pitching, though, and he was having trouble getting on the field as a second baseman.
There were, however, a couple injures in the outfield.
“My first thought was, I’m going to get reps in the outfield,” Riddle remembers.
He wound up starting 40 games in right field.
The situation is similar now for the Marlins, who opened a three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday at Miller Park. Until Sunday, Riddle was exclusively a shortstop. On Tuesday, he made his first career start in center field for the Marlins.
Riddle got his first taste of the outfield in the majors in the finale of the weekend series in San Diego on Sunday. He played the final two innings of a 9-3 win and caught the only ball hit to him. With no true center fielder on the active roster, Miami is going to give Riddle a chance to become a regular option at the position.
“I expect that to be good,” manager Don Mattingly said. “Obviously, it’s going to be some type of learning curve. He’s not played a ton of games out there. He played a lot of outfield in college, but not necessarily in center. JT’s a good athlete and seemed to take to it easy — a lot like [Brian Anderson] last year. We put him out there and started working on it, it looked pretty easy for him. Same for Andy last year. We put him out there and it looked pretty natural.”
Riddle’s defensive track record is at the crux of this experiment, which began when the Marlins optioned him to Triple A New Orleans in April.
Infielder Miguel Rojas was outplaying Riddle and won the shortstop job, so Miami wanted to find another role for the 27-yearold left-handed hitter. Riddle started working in center field and made nine starts there for the Baby Cakes before the Marlins recalled him Friday.
In each of his first two seasons in MLB, Riddle accounted for 1.0 defensive wins above replacement, according to Baseball-Reference.com, despite playing fewer than 70 full games in both 2017 and 2018. Although the infielder has not yet hit well on a consistent basis, his defense provides real value and Miami has reason to think it could eventually be the same in center.
In his first start in right with the Wildcats, Riddle threw out a runner at third base.
“I didn’t mind it at all,” Riddle said.
“Anything to be at this level and be able to play every day, whether it’s playing short, whether it’s in the outfield — whatever it is to be able to be up here and be playing, and help the team out.”