Kiké Hernandez 2018 salary arbitration preview

Kiké Hernandez started games at seven different positions in 2017, and is eligible for salary arbitration for the first time this offseason.

Hernandez playing so many positions — he started 16 games in center field, 16 games at shortstop, 15 games in right field, 12 games in left field, eight games at third base, two games at second base and two games at first base last season — adds an extra hurdle to finding truly comparable players.

There are plenty of players with roughly the same service time as Hernandez, who has three years, 54 days under his belt. But very few can match his versatility. Here is a group of players from the last three offseasons; let’s see how Hernandez stacks up against them.

Marwin Gonzalez is a jack of all trades himself for the Astros, and he has similar career numbers to Hernandez through three years. Gonzalez earned $2 million in 2016, though that was his second, not first year of arbitration because he was a Super Two the year before, which inflated his number by starting the process a year earlier.

Ruben Tejada seems like a decent comp, with nearly identical career WAR to Hernandez in 840 more plate appearances.. Tejada was also a Super Two, so his $1.88 million in 2015 was a tad inflated.

Then there are Brett Lawrie and Danny Espinosa, with better career bulk numbers and production than Gonzalez. They earned $1.925 million and $1.8 million, respectively in their first arb years, making that sort of an upper limit for Hernandez.

Let’s shift to the launch-year numbers for each of these players.

Tejada again looks like a nearly identical comp here

Old friend Scott Van Slyke has similar career bulk numbers and production to Hernandez, but Hernandez had the much better launch year. Van Slyke earned $1.325 million in 2017 but was also a Super Two the year before. Given Hernandez’s better launch season, that seems like the floor for him.

The guess

MLB Trade Rumors projected a 2018 salary of $1.3 million for Hernandez. Given his similar production to Tejada, I think Hernandez can make a case for somewhere near Tejada’s $1.88 million. Since Tejada was a Super Two let’s discount it a little bit and say $1.65 million for Hernandez.