The truth about Kevin Pillar is we haven’t seen him at full capacity yet. He simply hasn’t hit his ceiling. We must bear in mind, the almost-common knowledge, that he played a good chunk of last season hampered by a thumb injury.
In fact it was reported by Shi Davidi of Sportsnet in late October this off-season, that Pillar actually underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb. Davidi went on to note that Pillar jammed it sliding into 2nd base on August 6th, and subsequently spent a couple of weeks on the DL before returning to regular duties.