Don’t look now, but Odubel Herrera just crushed another dinger:

It’s his third home run in 25 at bats. He’s got seven hits, scored seven runs, and is currently batting .280. His OPS of .920 isn’t far behind Bryce Harper’s number.

If we’re going through the rest of the CF competitors right now, the situation looks like this:

  • Scott Kingery: not making contact, team-leading 12 strikeouts this spring
  • Adam Haseley: injured
  • Roman Quinn: average is good, on-base percentage is good, but struggles to put the ball in play and is always going to be a low-power type of player
  • Mickey Moniak: playing very well, a spring surprise after being earlier labeled a bust, has forced his way into the conversation

If we’re looking at raw numbers, Moniak is having the best spring. But the question is whether or not he can make the jump from totally overmatched to opening day starter in a relatively short amount of time. We still don’t know if he has the everyday defensive chops for the majors, whereas Herrera is at least a proven commodity, regardless of where his ceiling and floor are located.

There’s a sliver of hope that Moniak can be the guy moving forward, which would save us from having to endure another afternoon of Mike Missanelli complaining about Odubel, but that seems uncertain right now. We didn’t even expect Moniak to be in the conversation.

It would certainly seem, as of 3/17/21, that Herrera is in the center field driver’s seat.