6 rare MLB skillsets that get the job done

There's a type of player that scouts and front offices drool over: Five-tool monsters who stand at 6-foot-something and can throw baseballs at the speed of light or hit them out of ballparks without ever breaking a sweat. And yeah, for the superstars of the sport like Mike Trout, Mookie Betts and Fernando Tatis Jr., that is what you get.

But not every player can or needs to throw a fastball in the upper-90s. Not every player needs to swing out of their shoes in hopes of running into a pitch. Baseball has room for all sorts of talents across its rosters, with players succeeding in ways that just wouldn't work for any other person in the world.

Here are six of them who stand out.

All statistics through games of April 19

The changeup master: César Valdez

The changeup, as the name implies, is a change from the pitcher's usual go-to pitch, the fastball. Hurlers spend hours practicing it so that their arm speed doesn't change between dialing up the heater and slowing it down with the changeup.

But what happens when you throw your change almost exclusively? Meet the Orioles' closer, César Valdez.

Occupying a role normally reserved for hurlers who regularly tick triple digits, Baltimore has instead turned to a pitcher who throws a tumbling 78 mph dead fish over 80 percent of the time. At that point, it begs the question: Can you even call this a changeup? Is this just his very slow fastball?

No pitcher even comes close to what Valdez is doing. Among pitchers who have faced at least 25 batters this year, only Boston's Phillips Valdez (odd coincidence) comes close by throwing his change two-thirds of the time.

Meanwhile, the O's Valdez is getting the most important outs in the game throwing a pitch known for flopping its way to the plate. It looks a little something like this:

Of course, that's not the only interesting fact about Valdez. After making his Major League debut with 20 innings with the D-backs in 2010, it took another seven years before he showed up again with the A's and Blue Jays in 2017. It took another three years before Valdez made it back to the Majors with the Orioles last season. In between those stints, Valdez pitched for three other teams in the Minors and even played in Mexico and Taiwan.

Not many players make a heroic return to the Majors with a pitch that might not get ticketed on the highway.

The Groundscraper: Tyler Rogers

When you were first taught to throw, you were probably told to lift your arm, cock it back and step into it. But when it comes to this Giants reliever, he was apparently taught to bend all the way over and sweep his arm like a cat's tail.

Just look at this: All these little dots represent the release points for every pitcher with at least 50 pitches this year. Rogers is the tiny dot all the way on the far left corner. He quite literally is a man all alone.

But I get it: It's not the sexiest thing to see just dots. So, we found the pitcher with the most average release point for a right-hander: Corey Knebel. They don't even look like they're playing the same sport, much less the same position!

Somehow, with a motion that confuses batters and an 82 mph fastball, Rogers makes it work. He has a 0.84 ERA through his first 10 appearances this season.

The contact machine: Nick Madrigal

Strikeout rates have skyrocketed across the sport over the last decade, with teams K-ing an average of 9.4 times per nine innings last season. Well, if every player was Nick Madrigal, clubs would strike out about once per game.

Yeah, in his first 56 plate appearances this season, Madrigal has struck out just two times. I miss going from the cereal bowl to my mouth more often than that. It also means that Madrigal is striking out in fewer than 4 percent of his plate appearances. The last time a qualified batter did that in a full season was Tony Gwynn in 1998.

But Madrigal doesn't just not strike out. He has such amazing contact skills, it could make you reassess Ted Williams' famous quote about how hitting a round ball with a round bat is the hardest thing to do. Madrigal makes contact on 92 percent of pitches out of the zone -- you know, the ones pitchers use to get whiffs -- and over 96 percent on pitches in the zone.

Even better, Madrigal is a career .347/.356/.389 hitter with two strikes on him. That's absurd. Mike Trout is just a .217 hitter with two strikes (though he does have a slightly higher slugging percentage at .398).

Perhaps strangest of all: When Madrigal is ahead in the count, his batting line drops to .229/.327/.354. Yeah, somehow he's better when his back is against the wall. I don't get it either.

The bloop machine: Luis Arraez

Mentioning Gwynn above means it's time to talk about the other Gwynn-like player: Twins second baseman Luis Arraez. Anyone who watched the Padres Hall of Famer knows he had an almost supernatural ability to line baseballs through the hole between third base and shortstop.

Arraez does something similar, easily blooping baseballs over the infielders' heads where they'll harmlessly drop in front of frustrated and demoralized outfielders. Look at his spray chart from this year, with all those singles dotting the middle of the outfield:

Even now, when power is so highly coveted, there are still plenty of slap hitters in the game. So, what makes Arraez unique?

For one, he doesn't have much speed. Players like Whit Merrifield can hit the ball on the ground and reach first base before the infielders have much of a chance to throw him out. Arraez does not have that skill, with his sprint speed ranking in just the 27th percentile of all Major Leaguers. He has no infield hits this season and only four in his career.

And while other hitters like José Iglesias succeed in a similar way to Arraez, Statcast metrics tend to look on those hits less favorably. Meanwhile, Arraez is hitting .304 this season, and Statcast believes he should be at .364. Yeah, if anything, Arraez has been unlucky this year.

The Do-It-All: Shohei Ohtani

OK, I'm sure you're tired of being told how good Ohtani is. I mean, yes, here we have a pitcher who can throw 100 mph and blast home runs at the same time, a feat that has never been done since Babe Ruth played (and let's not forget he did it in a segregated league so he was missing half the competition). But it's important to note that Ohtani is not simply a good hitter and a good pitcher, but perhaps has the tools to be the best hitter in the sport.

Who is leading the league in barrels per plate appearance? Why, Ohtani at 17.3 percent. That puts him ahead of Aaron Judge, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Bryce Harper.

Who -- albeit briefly -- ended the five-year run of Giancarlo Stanton atop the fastest exit velocity leaderboard? Yeah, Ohtani, who has laced a ball a remarkable 119 mph this year.

He's hit a 451-foot home run -- the ninth-longest this season -- and ranks twelfth in sprint speed. Don't sleep on how remarkable his talent is -- no matter how many times you hear it.

The pinch-hitter: Pablo Sandoval

They may not have been household names, but say "Lenny Harris" or "John Vander Wal" to any '90s baseball fan and their eyes will likely glaze over as they reminisce over a particularly memorable late-game appearance. Sadly, with growing bullpens, these types of quote-unquote "professional hitters" are a dying breed in baseball.

Well, the Kung Fu Panda may be bringing it back. Forget "Let Pablo Pitch" it's now time to chant "Let Pablo pinch-hit." Sandoval has already blasted three pinch-hit home runs for the Braves this season, which puts him on pace to break Dave Hansen and Craig Wilson's record of seven in a season.

But this is also not a new skill for Sandoval. Among active Major Leaguers with at least 100 plate appearances as a pinch-hitter, Sandoval leads them all with an .899 OPS.

Pundits make a big deal about designated hitters remaining focused for their four ABs a game, but Sandoval has to keep himself ready for one at-bat a game. So far, he's done that remarkably well with a .309/.362/.537 career line. That's a better mark than most of his best seasons. When you remember that the pinch-hitter penalty is expected to be about 24 points of wOBA, it becomes even more remarkable.