Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Donovan Solano, the man who might be the single strangest player in the MLB right now, and that statement keeps in mind Rich Hill, Charlie Morton, Jose Cuas and Joey Meneses.
In a just and sane world, Donovan Solano's career goes like this: after coming through the Cardinals' farm system during the late 2000s, and promptly being cut before making the team, he has a modest career as an infielder for the Marlins during the 2010s, is made a backup in 2015 thanks to the rise of their competitive era, attempts to make camp with the Yankees in 2016 and trails off, ending his career with a .257 average, 274 hits and 9 career home runs. There are tons of careers that go like that. You find a niche in a small market, can't find other uses, try your best to reestablish usefulness elsewhere and fail, and that's the end.
Solano could have very easily thrown in the towel, much like his brother Jhonatan, but Donovan soldiered on and became a .300 hitter in the minors in three different systems. For the 2016 Railriders, Solano hit .319 with 67 RBIs and 163 hits, career marks on all counts. For the 2018 Oklahoma City PCL Dodgers, Solano hit .319 again with 100 hits and 43 RBIs. And with the 2019 Sacramento RiverCats, Solano hit .322 in 24 games. At this point, the Giants insist on bringing him onto the team, and Solano becomes a depth middle infielder in the majors again, this time hitting .330 with 71 hits in 81 games. It is, by far, Solano's best season in the majors, and at 31 he actually has something of a future.
Now...if this season never happens and the 2019 Giants never call Solano up, we never hear from Solano again. If he doesn't have this kind of season in triple-A by 2019, it never happens, because in 2020 there is no minor league play, and any comeback attempt in the minors would have fallen on silence. So because he made it onto the Giants by 2019, Solano is able to have the 2020 he had, which includes a silver slugger award and stats that would have made him potentially the starting 2nd baseman if the 2020 All-Star Game had happened. The only thing that was able to stop Solano was a 2021 injury that gave Thairo Estrada 2nd full-time.
What's wild is that this is also a pretty easy place for a career to end, but Solano has been a steady piece in the past two years for other smaller teams. As a backup with the Reds last year, Solano hit .284 with 79 hits in 80 games. Going into this year, I figured he'd play a similar role with the Twins, but in the absence of people who the Twins hired to play competently, Solano has been picking up a lot of slack this year. In 98 games he's hitting .273 with 71 hits and 25 RBI, mostly existing as either a depth bat or a bench bat that can pound balls where they ain't. He's been starting in the absence of Alex Kirilloff, and is the team's fourth most valuable hitter by WAR, behind a recently-hot Ryan Jeffers, Edouard Julien and Willi Castro for some reason [it's the steals]. This...really shouldn't be happening, Solano's 35 and there's plenty of younger players trying to rehabilitate this Twins team, but it's kinda cool that he can still be relied upon, and he's definitely been one of the saving graces of the team this year at the plate.
The Twins are thankfully heating back up, and people like Griffin Jax, Matt Wallner and Kenta Maeda are helping the team along to a more confident perch atop the AL Central. It's not perfect, and I don't exactly expect the Twins to ever be in the position of getting a bye in the playoffs, but they're better looking than they were. It's sad that the team isn't progressing thanks to the marquee stars, but having someone like Donovan Solano be the hero certainly isn't a bad thing.
Coming Tomorrow- A rookie position player for the Brewers who's excellent defensively. This doesn't especially narrow it down.
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