Detroit Tigers Analysis

GIF of the Day: Omar Infante barehands it for the out

Yes, he can play second base.

By Kurt Mensching@KurtJustKurt May 30, 2013, 11:53am EDT

Remember second base a season ago? Two? Three? After Placido Polanco was allowed to walk, the position was a mess, bottoming out in Ryan Raburn's inherent Raburn-ness.

Thanks to the trade last July that brought Omar Infante to the Tigers, stabilizing the position at last and putting a capable glove there every day, we have plays like this from Wednesday's game. Infante charged a grounder, barehanded it, and made the play at first to rob A.J. Burnett. (Let's just be glad Andrew McCutchen wasn't running.)

Infante had UZRs per 150 games of 5.3 and 9.7 the past two seasons. So far in 2013 he's at 4.1. If you prefer BIS' Plus/Minus: Infante was +4 with Detroit last season. The Tigers ranged from -1 with Santiago to -4 with Raburn. In 2013, Infante is +3.

Well, that was a lot of numbers to tell you what you already knew: the "Can he play second base?" meme is dead.

Omar Infante can, in fact, play second base.