How Good Does Michael McKenry Have To Be?

Michael McKenry had a slow offensive start to the season, hitting .184 through his first 15 games. Since then (May 15), he has hit .282/.344/.628 in 90 plate appearances.

It took me awhile to even start considering that McKenry might deserve some serious playing time. The guy hit .265/.357/.453 in his lengthy minor league career, so you can't blame me or not thinking he would ever be successful with the bat in the major leagues. However, his performance this year can't be overlooked.

Rod Barajas was brought in for his defense and veteran presence, but he's hitting just .209/.281/.369 this year and has been especially bad since May ended, hitting .198/.295/.333 in those 111 at-bats. If you're picking a team for next year, you'd probably still take Barajas over McKenry, but the battle has to be pretty close by now doesn't it? It's not like Mike can't get the job done behind the plate, his defense is probably the the only reason he's still here.

The Fort has put up good offensive numbers at a position where it's very hard to do such a thing, especially when you aren't even an everyday player. Sure, he'll have his bad at-bats but you can't say that he hasn't helped this team greatly on offense when he's been in the lineup. He has a small big league sample size, I'm not saying make him the everyday starter, but I am saying that you might have to start considering it.