Blaze lived up to his name, flying across the sky like a shooting star, before vanishing…
- Rating: 4.86
- MLB Stats: 247/.321/.343 86 OPS+ 0 bWAR
- Date of birth: 6/11/1999
- Earnings: Pre-arbitration
- 2025 status: 40-man Roster, one option remaining
Drafted by Arizona in the 11th round of the 2018 MLB out of Bishop Verot High-school in Fort Meyers, Florida, Blaze Alexander had a slow but steady rise through the Diamondbacks Farm system. The only real hiccup for Blaze as he made his way through the farm was a below average 2021 season, which mostly the result of having the 2020 MILB season canceled because of the pandemic.
In a world where both Geraldo Perdomo and Jordan Lawler weren’t injured to start the 2024 season, Blaze wouldn’t have made his Major League debut so early in the 2024 season. It’d be much more likely that he’d have started the year in Reno, getting called up way later in the year, possibly as late as September. Instead, the team was forced to call up the young SS to fill the resulting void caused by both Perdomo and Lawlar’s absence.
If you just looked at the first month of results, you’d be very impressed; In his first calender month of games (through April 30th) in 70 PAs .311/.400/.541 with three HRs, a .405 wOBA 160 wRC+, albeit with the one downside being a whole bunch of defensive errors (which I’ll get into later in this article) Even with those defensive shortcomings, I think most people would be satisfied with that offensive production coming from a shortstop. Unfortunately, that offense production just didn’t hold up after that. In Blaze’s remaining 115 plate appearances he had anemic triple slash line of .210/.272/.229 with just a .232 wOBA and 44 wRC+, bringing his overall numbers down to 247/.321/.343 with a .298 wOBA and an 88 wrc+. His numbers at the AAA level were also disappointing, with Blaze hitting .276/.353/.444, which is a slightly below average 99 wRC+
Blaze was objectively terrible at shortstop, but slightly above average at second. With less than half as many innings at third as either middle infield position, I’d call Blaze’s defense at third a mixed bag (at best), thanks to an above average range and arm.
While I don’t think Blaze is as bad as he was after that first month of games, I also don’t think he is as good as he looked in that first month either. Defensively, I think it’s fairly clear Blaze is not a long term solution at short, I still think he could eventually be above average defensively at both middle infield positions. Considering his best position is already locked down by an MVP candidate level secondbaseman, Blaze’s future with this team, in my opinion, is likely as a super utility player since his tools are well suited for that role. It will be interesting to see what role he eventually lands in, and how his career develops over the next few seasons.