I don’t think we’ve talked about this enough.
Patrick Wisdom is handsome. Bachelor-contestant handsome. Neatly trimmed scruff, strong jaw, lean machine of home runs and strikeouts. Frank Schwindel seems like a nice man, but Patrick Wisdom is the handsome one here.
He’s also not as good of a hitter as his teammate.
Probably.
Wisdom does have more plate appearances, meaning pitchers have had more time to figure him out. But he trails Schwindel in everything but home runs, and his projections going forward aren’t as strong as those of Schwindel. Schwindel makes more sense as a lineup cornerstone next year than Wisdom. Wisdom makes more sense as a bopper, batting seventh or eighth and perhaps not even playing every day.
We need to spell this out because the milieu is going to have a hard time not latching itself onto Wisdom. It already has. He was in the Field of Dreams graphic when that game was announced. He was on the team back when the team was winning. His sensational stretches were more nationally relevant, consisting of ungodly numbers of home runs in short amounts of time while Schwindel just quietly keeps hitting and hitting and hitting. Are we sure Schwindel will be better than Wisdom? No. Does Wisdom’s ability to play third base and some outfield perhaps make him more valuable even if a poorer hitter? Perhaps. But we need to accept, preemptively, that no matter how handsome Patrick Wisdom is, he might not be good enough to play every day of 2022, or to be a part of the 2023 plan when it comes.
I hope Wisdom’s performance is as strong as his cheekbones. But if it isn’t, I’m ready to acknowledge it and move on. I hope the rest of you are too.
