1 – As you noted, DJ had no roster spot on the 2012 team. Our infield was flush with decent guys (or so we thought). Waxing philosophical about what could have been is like talking how we could have Donaldson at third. It didn’t work out because the team didn’t have a need for the player and the player wasn’t at the apex of his development. The ex-girlfriend is gone, we’ve moved on to bigger and better things.

2 – DJ has produced one season above replacement level (2016). He’s nearly 29 years of age, a below average hitter by every metric not named AVG or OBP, and while he does everything FINE, he is nothing more than an average starting player on an average team (which is pretty damn good, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t make it past high school…).

The only reason LeMahieu gets more recognition than say, Jed Lowrie or Jedd Gyorko, is because he narrowly won the batting title last year, thanks to his manager holding him out of games.