When we talk about players in terms of advanced statistics, we often use the concept of “replacement level”. That’s the basis for Wins Above Replacement (WAR), one of the analytics you’ll see often on this site and others around the baseball universe.
The idea is that there are guys sitting in triple-A or on the free agent market who are easily obtained for around the league minimum, and who will perform at a below-average but not completely inept level. A player’s value in terms of WAR is determined by how much better he is than a generic replacement player at his position.