What’s A Ryan Jackson?

When you have a site dedicated to one team, there’s no such thing as “news that isn’t important,” really. On Monday, Andrew Friedman made his first move as the new czar of Dodger baseball, claiming infielder Ryan Jackson from the Padres. I’m already questioning the first sentence of this post.

But, okay, fine, let’s be completionists, and have something to look back upon in a year when we do Jackson’s 2015 review for the 17 assorted plate appearances he’ll inevitably get. What the hell, let’s just use his Wikipedia entry:

Jackson was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the fifth round of the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft out of the University of Miami.

Jackson was called up to the majors for the first time on August 10, 2012.

Jackson was claimed off waivers by the Houston Astros On November 20, 2013

Jackson was traded to the San Diego Padres on December 18, 2013 in exchange for Jesus Guzmán.

He was claimed off waivers by the Los Angeles Dodgers on November 3, 2014.

Now you know a little about Ryan Jackson. The entirety of his major league career came for the Cardinals in 2012-13, getting into 20 games and getting just 25 plate appearances. Last year, he played in all of 11 minor league games for the Padres thanks to right wrist surgery. Here’s how FanGraphs+ 2013 viewed him:

Jackson makes his money with his glove on the middle infield, not at the plate. The Cardinals have question marks at short and second, but Jackson doesn’t hit enough to have fantasy value even if he gets an extended chance. A powerless average in the .270-range is the upside here.

BP2014 went with:

Ryan Jackson is Pete Kozma without the publicist, which means that, when the problem is Pete Kozma, the answer sure as heck isn’t Ryan Jackson. The Cardinals let him loose on waivers in November, and after a connecting flight in Houston he ended up traded to San Diego. His best bet as a Padre is to muscle in on Logan Forsythe‘s utility turf, and the easiest way to do that is to hit. Easy being, of course, relative.

So, yeah. He’s your typical glove-first middle infielder. Being white, I assume he’s also “gritty” and “a gamer.” So why would the Dodgers even bother? Well, there’s worse things in the world than having a glove-first middle infielder at Triple-A, aren’t there? Don’t forget how many times the Dodgers had to recall Carlos Triunfel in 2014, anyway. This is a thing that happened, and we acknowledge it and move on.