It’s been a few days since the last one of these articles came out. Today I wanted to look at whether or not the team should take a look at adding Brandon Dixon to the 40-man roster and calling him up to Cincinnati in September.
The month of April was a struggle for Brandon Dixon. With the Louisville Bats he hit just .185/.229/.338 in 18 games played. It wasn’t the way he would have liked to start out the season.
Everything changed in the month of May and ever since, Brandon Dixon has performed significantly better at the plate. In the 395 plate appearances since the calendar flipped over from April, Dixon has hit .272/.337/.465. That’s come along with 15 steals, 23 doubles, three triples and 13 home runs.
On the flip side, Brandon Dixon has continued to strike out at a high rate. He had 100 strikeouts in that span to go along with 31 walks. That’s a strikeout rate of 25.3%, a rate you would like to see a little bit lower. His walk rate of 7.8% is solid, especially if he can carry that forward to the Major Leagues.
Offensively, Brandon Dixon has some interesting skills. There’s legit pop in his bat. While no one will confuse him with Billy Hamilton, he’s an above-average runner who can use his speed. The strikeouts could be a concern, but if he’s going to be used more as a utility player than as a starter, it mitigates some of the issues as long as the rate doesn’t get worse in a lesser used role.
Defensively, Dixon doesn’t stand out anywhere on the field, but he’s capable of handling multiple positions in both the infield and the outfield. On the dirt he’s capable of playing first, second and third base – especially as a guy not being counted on there every day. In the outfield he’s played left, right and center over the last two years. With Louisville he’s seen limited time in the outfield, though – playing just 10 games out there.
Currently the 40-man roster is full. Brandon Dixon isn’t on it and to make room for him the team would need make room for him. Whether that’s designating someone for assignment, releasing someone (unlikely) or placing someone on the 40-man roster onto the 60-day disabled list – they’d have to make some sort of move to clear a spot. Perhaps he could fill the role that the team envisioned Arismendy Alcantara would, but ultimately didn’t. 2017 would seem like a great opportunity to get a look at whether or not he could rather than waiting until 2018 when there could be more on the line and less time to experiment and give opportunities.