Ernie Clement is an underrated asset on the Toronto Blue Jays

Originally brought to the Blue Jays via minor league contract back in March of 2023, Ernie Clement has quietly been one of the more valuable players on this team for a while now.

It's time to pay your respects.

Clement brings a different skillset to the table for the Blue Jays; one that's kept him in the starting lineup on a consistent basis from the end of August, 2023, to now.

For one, he's the ultimate vibes guy. He plays the game with a looseness that is infectious.

He's emerging as a leader in a Blue Jays clubhouse who's got a ton of players that get written off both by fans and other teams.

Nathan Lukes, Gimenez, Myles Straw, and Tyler Heineman were all viewed as expendable by other teams.

Clement is in the exact same boat, as the Cleveland Guardians and the (then) Oakland Athletics both gave up on him before he found his stride at the big league level. He fits this specific mold of player well.

The man never walks or strikes out. He hits for a ton of contact and plays some of the best defense in the American League at multiple positions around the infield.

Clement plays a unique brand of baseball, but that's helped him become one of the AL's most valuable infielders.

He's bound to start getting the attention he deserves at some point, but for now it's crickets.

Since Clement was brought aboard by the Blue Jays, the organization has trotted Matt Chapman, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Guerrero, Addison Barger, Santiago Espinal, Luis De Los Santos, Cavan Biggio, and Will Wagner out at Clement's primary position: third base.

Few, if any, of those names have provided the amount of value that Clement has, which is pretty astounding seeing as how the man has a total of four home runs this year.

Amongst all qualifying hitters over the past 30 days, Clement is fifth in the game in average (.380), 21st in wRC+ (169) and tied for fourth in fWAR (1.7).

While he's certainly showing out offensively this year, it's his performance against left-handed pitching that really deserves a closer look.

It is mind-boggling to see what Clement has done against lefties to start the new year. In many respects, he's one of the best hitters in all of baseball against southpaws.

That feels like a huge label to slap such a light-hitting utilityman with, but the numbers back it up.

Entering Wednesday's action, Clement is hitting .430 against left-handers, which is the best amongst qualifying hitters.

In fact, his average is 22 points higher than Paul Goldschmidt, who's second best and is hitting .408. Clement's OBP is .471 against lefties (third in MLB), and he's also third in SLG (.722).

So much of Clement's fWAR comes from his defensive play. This falls right in line with the organizational philosophy the Blue Jays have employed going back a few years now.

The team got rid of Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Teoscar Hernandez, two of their big boppers, and replaced them with Kevin Kiermaier and Daulton Varsho out in the outfield grass.

Since then, there's been a pretty significant shift to a defense-over-offense approach.

The club has softened on that a tiny bit this year, but they still have Varsho, Gimenez, Kirk, and Clement (four elite defenders) occupying spots in their everyday starting-nine.

Clement's got the positional versatility that every manager in the game wants on his team.

There are way too many «utility players» around the league who are able to take up space at a bunch of different positions, but there are not many who can play at a high level at multiple spots quite like he can.

You need to put some respect on his name

Source: Just Baseball
Ernie Clement Is an Overlooked Hero on the Blue Jays