A couple of years back a YouTuber called Internet Historian released a video entitled The Endgoodening of No Man’s Sky. The basic premise of the video was that the video game No Man’s Sky had started badly and finished well. But the finishing wasn’t just some coincidence – it was a lot of hard work by people who believed in their product. For some reason, as I have watched Jon Singleton this season I have thought about that video.
In reality, I have no thoughts on how the Jon Singleton story will end. This isn’t going to be a blog about how everything is fixed and Singleton has finally found his place in the MLB. Do I wish that was the case? Sure. But as much as I wish it, I can’t deny the reality that it’s probably easier to get hired at a Red Lobster than it is stay in the MLB. Instead, I want to say how cool it is to see that Jon Singleton is staying up in the MLB, because he wasn’t supposed to be here again, realistically. But, if you had asked me at the start of the season if I’d be thinking about Jon Singleton in really any medium-scale capacity I would’ve reported you to some agency for your own sake.
I have a special affinity for Singleton because I defended him in the ALCS last year. I still don’t think that Dusty made the wrong decision putting him in. The dirty little secret in sports is that there aren’t these high-end good decisions. This is at least my opinion, but the difference between a good decision and a bad decision is what goes right. Unthankfully for both Dusty and Jon, the decision went badly. And now we’re here having to watch Dallas flirt with the possibility of two championships in less than nine months. It’s sickening and I think Mark Cuban and his fake ownership of the Mavericks needs to be investigated.
There’s no world where I can pretend I’m some sort of Jon Singleton expert. I vaguely remember him from when he got suspended from baseball for weed (it was a third violation, but come on). I don’t remember his first stint with the Astros, or even when he came back. And I’m not going to even try to gaslight everyone into feeling badly they have no clue what happened in Mexico and the minors.
In every capacity, I was under the impression that first base was about to be a black hole of a position. It turns out all that needed to happen was send the starter down to the minors and let a guy who no one believed in take his place. I’m not going to sit here and say Singleton is on some world-bending season. His WAR is still negative (hey but only -0.2!), and his batting average is still only .221 but it’s an improvement from the barren wasteland we were expecting. And he has an OBP of .326, which is genuinely pretty huge. Seems Dusty made the right decision in the ALCS. He’s even got the confidence to bat flip after a homerun; also he has a solid five of them, so watch out Kyle Tucker. King Tuck? More like King Suck it.
This is where I’m going to get my advanced stats hat on. Statistically, he is an average fielder this season. But the advanced stats don’t take into account plays like below where you can tell he puts his heart into the play. No Baseball Reference metric is going to track that. I was going to put a section in here comparing his fielding to Abreu (comparing his batting is like dividing by zero), but honestly who cares? Bro is out there falling to keep Abreu from coming back and taking his place.
There’s a lot of the season to go, and who knows if the Astros (Bagwell) will decide to bring Abreu back. Right now, I see no need. Jon Singleton is writing his own endgoodening story right now. And from the outside looking in, it’s been a joy to see. At the end of last season, he was getting killed online – and his wife was taking those hits with him. So it’s wonderful to see him blossoming; the pressure is creating a diamond on the diamond (no one hates me more than I hate myself).
But no matter how it turns out, no matter how it ends, I am happy to be here for the redemption of Jon Singleton. Selfishly, I’d like it to continue for the sake of my Astros viewing experience. Even more, though, I’d like it to continue for a guy who really has struggled to get back here. The unexpected redemption of Jon Singleton isn’t a singular season story; it includes Mexico, and the minors, a walk, and an ALCS fiasco.
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