Naming Nivar: With last week's trade of Doug Glanville to the Chicago Cubs, the centerfield job was suddenly entrusted to a 23-year-old Dominican named Ramon Nivar. If you had never heard of Nivar, you can be forgiven, since only last summer he was Ramon A. Martinez, a second baseman spending his third year in the Florida State League. Let's try to sort this story out. Ramon Martinez split the 2000 campaign between Savannah (SAL) and Charlotte (FSL), hitting an aggregate .301/.321/.377 in 81 games. He regressed significantly for Charlotte in 2001 (.241/.286/.295), before getting back on track last year in his third go-around (.305/.353/.403), in a brutal hitters' league. He was the leadoff hitter for the league's best team (scoring 98 runs in 114 games), showed great speed (39 steals) and was named the circuit's best defensive second baseman by league managers, with just eight errors in 100 games at the keystone.
Since he was 22 and still in the FSL, Baseball America cautiously named him the Rangers' 22nd-best prospect. Baseball Prospectus 2003 had this to say about Martinez: "Unless he does something surprising, like break out at Frisco (the Rangers' new Double-A affiliate) this year, you don't need to keep track of him after all." Well, he broke out.
Last fall the Rangers began calling him Ramon Nivar (Nivar being his mother's surname), allowing him, according to Peter Gammons, to go unselected in the Rule V draft. There may be some truth to Gammons' theory: according to team officials, his name has always been Nivar-Gonzalez, so last fall's switch was apparently just a clerical one.
Beginning the 2003 campaign for the Frisco Roughriders, Nivar started and remained hot, hitting .347/.387/.464 in 79 games. With the Rangers' glut of second-base prospects, he began playing center field in mid-June. According to a story in the Dallas Morning News, Ranger GM John Hart watched Frisco play a series in Round Rock, and saw Nivar make several diving catches in the outfield and run wild on the bases, highlighted by a straight steal of home. Hart returned with glowing reports for Texas pilot Buck Showalter.
Nivar was promoted to Oklahoma City on July 2, and did not miss a beat: 337/.368/.472 in 23 games. He was the starting second baseman in the Futures Game on July 13, but played centerfield almost exclusively (19 games) for the Red Hawks. After a few short weeks in Triple-A, and 102 games above Single-A, Nivar is now playing centerfield in the major leagues.
By all accounts, Nivar is an electric player. He is lightening fast on defense and on the bases, though perhaps a bit undisciplined in both areas. He does not take many walks--just 25 in the minors this season and 32 last season--but he also rarely strikes out. He has a quick bat, which enables him to hit pitches throughout (and outside of) the strike zone to all fields, though many of his hits are of the infield variety. He was a switch-hitter prior to this season, but (likely figuring that with a new name and new position, why not shoot the moon?) is strictly a right-handed batsman this year. He has also drawn rave reviews for his work ethic and his attitude.
Nivar does not yet hit with enough sock to be an impact player, nor with enough patience to be a good leadoff hitter. Ranger fans looking for a long-term solution in center field can only hope that the strides he has made in the past 15 months are not the last ones he will make. With his team playing out the string, Nivar is a fun story to keep an eye on.