We have been talking about the Cleveland Indians’ offense for over a month now and how strange it is that the Tribe ranks 3rd in the AL in runs scored per game with really only three players having above average seasons.
We will point out again that Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez are having arguably two of the five best hitting seasons in baseball, because if they weren’t, the Cleveland offense would be in big trouble.
Can they win in the post-season with only three players carrying the load at the plate?
Terry Francona’s squad ranks 4th in the American League in on base percentage, despite having only those three hitters above the league average in that category (.317).
Yes, Erik Gonzalez and Lonnie Chisenhall are higher, but they have limited plate appearances. Edwin Encarnacion sits right at the league average, while Yonder Alonso is just below at .314.
Alonso has an OBP of .365 in 2017, and his career mark is .336, so he is well below both of those marks. Encarnacion was at .377 last season, his highest mark since 2012, mostly because he reached a career high with 102 walks.
This season, his walk rate is down, and so is his batting average, down to .229 currently after hitting .258 a walk ago.
Here are the other on base percentages for the players who get the most playing time for the Tribe:
Yan Gomes .300
Jason Kipnis .307
Brandon Guyer .284
Rajai Davis .296
Greg Allen .264
Roberto Perez .247
The Cleveland attack is inconsistent because of it.
Among the teams with the highest run scoring totals in the AL, it was surprising to see the Indians ranking only behind Boston and New York in terms of number of games scoring three runs or less. The Tribe has done this 43 times, compared to 30 for the Yankees and 34 for the Red Sox.
By contrast, Houston has scored less than four runs 47 times, Texas 50 times, and Oakland 51 times.
The Indians do rank behind only Boston in number of games with 10 or more runs, having done that 14 times (Red Sox 17).
The concern for us is how this will work in the playoffs. The other teams are going to go out of their way to not allow Lindor or Ramirez to beat them, so it is important that someone, anyone, steps up.
It won’t be unusual to see managers pass Lindor to get to Brantley, and/or skip Ramirez to get to Encarnacion. Really, who else is going to hurt them the way the lineup is currently constructed.
The point is someone else has to step up or the front office is going to have to get another bat.
Leonys Martin looked like he could help vs. right-handed pitching, but he looks like he may be out of the lineup for awhile with a non-baseball related issue.
Will Chisenhall be able to get back in the lineup, and even if he does, can he stay healthy for the post-season?
We would say at this point, neither Martin nor Chisenhall will be useful come playoff time.
So, can the offense be more consistent and efficient unless changes are made? We’d say the most likely scenarios would be Encarnacion or Alonso getting better because they were better a year ago.
Gomes is who he is, and Kipnis hasn’t been good at the plate since the World Series in 2016. That’s a long slump.
Until then, we are officially worried about the hitting come playoff time. That’s the problem relying on two players, no matter how good they are.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 