Kyle Farmer

From BR Bullpen

James Kyle Farmer

BR page

Biographical Information[edit]

Kyle Farmer has played in the majors since 2017. The number of plate appearances he has gotten has gone up each of his first three seasons. Although primarily a catcher in the minors, he has only rarely been used as a catcher in the majors - the Dodgers used him mostly as a pinch-hitter and third baseman, while the Cincinnati Reds used him primarily at second base. He found home run power in 2019, after hitting no home runs with the Los Angeles Dodgers during partial seasons in 2017 and 2018.

Kyle had a memorable major league debut for the Dodgers. He came to bat as a pinch-hitter in the 11th inning of the nationally-televized Sunday night game against the San Francisco Giants on July 30, 2017, with the Dodgers trailing 2-1 at home. Corey Seager had hit a one-out double and Justin Turner had been walked intentionally before Kyle came to bat against Albert Suarez. He lined a pitch down the right-field line for a double, scoring both runners and giving his team a walk-off 3-2 win. He had been called up three days earlier to take the place of P Grant Dayton on the roster. He played just 20 major league games that season, hitting .300 with 2 RBIs, but was still added to the postseason roster, going 0 for 4 with an RBI while playing in the first two series. However, he was dropped for the World Series.

In 2018, he again saw only limited action at the major league level, given the Dodgers still had both Yasmani Grandal and Austin Barnes to share catching duties. In fact, in 39 games, he saw most of his action at third base. He hit .235 with 9 RBIs and was not on the postseason roster. After the season, on December 21st, he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds along with OFs Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig and P Alex Wood in return for P Homer Bailey, who was immediately released by L.A., and two prospects, in a deal designed to clear roster and salary space for the Dodgers. With the Reds in 2019, he played 97 games, hitting .230 with 9 homers and 27 RBIs, good power numbers since he had just 183 at-bats. His most frequent position was second base, but he played every infield position, pitcher and catcher - but not a single game in the outfield. His lone pitching appearance came on August 8th in a 12-5 loss to the Chicago Cubs; he gave up a hit but no runs in 1 1/3 innings.

In 2020 he was back with the Reds in a back-up role when the season finally started at the end of July. He appeared in 32 of the 60 games played by the team that season, hitting .266 in 64 at-bats. He went 0 for 5 in the only game he played in the postseason, as the Reds were swept by the Atlanta Braves in two games in the Wild Card Series. In 2021, He took over as the regular at shortstop for Cincinnati, hitting .263 in 147 games, with 16 homers and 63 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 88, his Achilles' heel being a low walk rate (just 22 in 529 plate appearances). He had a similar season for what was now a sinking Reds team in 2022, with 145 games played, an average of .255 (with an OBP of .315), 14 homers and 78 RBIs. His OPS+ improved slightly, to 90, but it was essentially the same season as in 2021, excet that he played a few more games at third base and a few less at short.

On November 18, 2022, he was traded to the Minnesota Twins in return for minor leaguer Casey Legumina. He started the 2023 season as a quasi-regular utility player, seeing time at second base, third base and first base (shortstop was taken care of by the teams' best player, Carlos Correa). He was hitting .226 with 6 runs in 11 games when on April 12th, he was hit flush in the face by a fastball thrown by Lucas Giolito in the 4th inning of a game against the Chicago White Sox. He had to leave the game immediately and was placed on the injured list as he required a procedure to have his teeth realigned, but had managed to escape without fracturing his jaw, which would have put him on the shelf for an extended period.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Jack Baer: "Twins SS Kyle Farmer to have teeth realigned after taking fastball to jaw", Yahoo! Sports, April 12, 2023. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

Retrieved from "https://www.baseball-reference.com/bpv/index.php?title=Kyle_Farmer&oldid=1318727"