Every once and a while, there is a sports storyline that captures everyone's attention. These are the feel good stories, the ones fans from every team are interested in and may even celebrate. R. A. Dickey comes to mind. A knuckleballer having the best success of his career at age 35 was unfathomable. Yet, Mets fans and baseball fans all around cheered for him every 5th day. He went on to win the Cy Young and sign a nice contract. No one could begrudge his success. This year, another storyline has developed. Success from an unexpected player that you can't help but feel good for and cheer. And this player, his name is hard to pronounce. You probably never heard of him. And if it were not for a great Spring Training, you never would have. This is the growing legend of Never Nervous Yangervis.
Yangervis Solarte is a 26 year old utility infielder for the New York Yankees. He is from Valncia, Carabobo in Venezuela. If that place sounds familiar to you, it is probably because that is the hometown of several other current major leaguers including Felix Hernandez, Salvador Perez, Henderson Alvarez, Francisco Cervelli, and Wilmer Flores. Baseball runs in the family, as his uncle is Roger Cedeno. In fact, Cedeno asked a favor of his agent: take on his nephew as a client. But all great stories have a past seeded in hardship. Solarte spent eight years in the minor leagues, six for the Twins and two for the Rangers. He totaled a .286/.336/.397 slash line with an OPS of .733: good but nothing great. In fact, applying the "Quad-A" moniker to Solarte seemed reasonable. If it were not for Cano taking a huge deal in Seattle, we may have never seen him play. The Yankees spent good money this year, except for in the infield. Solarte's versatility as a 2nd and 3rd basemen, his ability to hit from both sides, and his desire to make it led the Yankees to offer him a minor league deal. Everyone is familiar with the spring training he had: .429 average, 2 hrs, and an OPS of 1.061. It seemed logical that he should make the club over long time fan headache Eduardo Nunez. Fortunately, he did.
But that was spring training. Plenty of guys have great spring trainings, racking up stats against other career minor leaguers. There was a chance that Solarte was all smoke and mirrors, that pitchers hadn't gotten a full scouting report on him. And still that may be. However, he has done his part to stick around in the big leagues. Take a look at these two stat lines: .314/.383/.516 OPS .899 and .373/.448/.569 OPS 1.017. Care to take a guess as to who they belong? The first is Robinson Cano's 2013 season. The second is Solarte's 2014 season. Of course, I don't expect Solarte to keep up this incredible pace. Remember Zoilo Almonte? He had his flash in the pan last year, too, then dropped off. However, Solarte has done two things really well this year. Indisputably, he gets on base. With six walks to eight strikeouts, he has shown that he has good plate discipline. And he plays solid defense. How solid? How about triple play solid? In his first game at the Trop against the Rays, Solarte started a 5-4-3 triple play. His ability to get on base and to play defense is what should keep getting him consistent playing time.
Let's throw some praise his way. Currently, he leads all AL 2nd Basemen in hits (19), doubles (7), RBI (9), and all slash lines and OPS. In this young season, he is 4th in AL OPS behind Jose Bautista, Alexei Ramirez, and Mike Trout; not bad company. His .373 average is 2nd in the AL. And just yesterday, he cranked his first home run, which he said eagerly would go to his mother.
He has the hot streak fans want to cheer for and he has the background and personality to go with it. Sample size be damned! Enjoy the legend of Yangervis. Wouldn't it be something if he kept up these numbers into the All Star break? What if we were seeing a good player finally get his shot, seizing the opportunity, and never letting it go? That, would be a story.
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