Bartlett Finds Power Too

This afternoon, we talked about the surprising power surge of Kendry Morales, who is beating his projected ISO by about about 120 points this year. However, we always knew that Morales had some power – we just didn’t expect his doubles to turn into home runs like this. If we want to look at a guy whose really having an out-of-nowhere power surge, then we have to turn to Tampa Bay, where Jason Bartlett continues to have one of the craziest seasons in recent history.

Bartlett’s ISO by season, 2005 to 2008: .094, .084, .096, .075. He had 12 home runs in about 1,700 plate appearances. He was consistent in his lack of pop, which is kind of what you expect from someone with his physical build and defensive chops. Bartlett was a classic glove first middle infielder who drew some walks, stole some bases, and tried not to kill too many rallies.

This year, however, has been a totally different story. He’s at .338/.398/.522, and his ISO is .184. He’s doubled his career home run total in 109 games, and it hasn’t just been balls flying over the wall – he’s got 32 doubles+triples, one off his career high, which he set in 2007 with 120 extra plate appearances.

Even an injury can’t slow him down. He had a monstrous start to the season, then missed three weeks in June with an ankle injury. After coming off the DL, he looked like he was reverting to previous form, hitting just one home run and slugging .402 from mid-June through the end of July. But he’s found the power stroke again as of late, hitting .349/.432/.560 since the beginning of August.

As a 29-year-old with no track record of this kind of ability, it’s hard to figure what to make of Bartlett. For all the talk that Ben Zobrist’s breakthrough offensive performance has gotten, he’s not the only former slap hitter now whacking the ball down in Tampa. With Reid Brignac waiting in the wings and newly acquired Sean Rodriguez in the fold (plus the aforementioned Zobrist and Akinori Iwamura), the Rays have enviable middle infield depth. If they’re convinced that they’ve fixed Bartlett somehow, then he’s an all-star that they should be hanging onto.

More likely, however, is that Tampa’s going to try to shop him this winter coming off a career year and one season away from free agency. It will be interesting to see how many teams believe this version of Bartlett is for real.