We know the Cleveland Indians are in a race for a post- season spot, even if the team’s front office may not realize it, or in fact, may not want them to be.
Yes, we are being slightly facetious here, but if you are trying to win as many games as you can, you don’t use extreme patience with young players.
There is no question the Tribe received a tremendous boost from OF Oscar Mercado, whose production kind of forced the Indians to move on from Leonys Martin.
The rookie has the third highest OPS on the squad right now, behind Carlos Santana and Francisco Lindor, and his .837 OPS is a true 800+, meaning the magic “800” number came from having an on base percentage of at least .350 and a slugging percentage of over .450.
Mercado does, with a .360 OBP and a .477 slugging mark. He’s not doing it by slugging a bunch of home runs, so his slugging mark is like .550 and he can get on base.
Since they should be vying for a wild card spot, they may have to make some tough decisions on other young players.
This doesn’t mean writing them off for ever. We know some players don’t catch on in their first call up, but need to go back to the minors for more seasoning. It’s not a crime, nor is it a horrible thing, it’s just baseball.
Two such players for the Indians are Jake Bauers and Bobby Bradley.
Bauers has received a longer leash, playing in 77 of the Tribe’s 83 games, but quite frankly, we hasn’t produced up to expectations, hitting just .226 with a .300/.389/.689 OPS make up.
And Bauers has received most of his time playing left field, and let’s just say, he’s not reminding anyone of a gold glover at the position.
As for Bradley, the Indians hoped to catch lightning in a bottle because he was mashing homers at a crazy pace in Columbus, but since being moved up hasn’t homered and has whiffed in half of his last 18 at bats.
If the Indians were 15 games out of a wild card spot, we’d say play both on an every day basis to find out if they can hit. But they aren’t, they need very much to win games.
And they seem to have players ready to go at Columbus.
Switch-hitting OF Greg Allen was hitting at the big league level right before he was sent out when Carlos Carrasco had to be put on the IL and the Tribe needed an extra reliever for a bullpen game.
Allen was 7 for his last 21 with two triples, a home run and four RBIs before going back to AAA.
The other player who should be brought up is 23-year-old left-handed hitting Daniel Johnson, who came over from Washington in the Yan Gomes deal.
Johnson started the year in Akron, and combined at AA and AAA, has hit .272 with an 884 OPS (.358/.527/.884). At Columbus, he has fanned 27 times and walked 17 times in 161 plate appearances.
Plus, he has played a lot of centerfield in his past, so his defense will be better than Bauers if he would play LF, or he could go to RF and have Tyler Naquin DH.
Terry Francona would still need a back up first baseman to give Carlos Santana a half day off, but that’s the only downside to this.
Again, the time to have patience is when you are losing or it’s the beginning of the season. Right now, the Cleveland Indians shouldn’t have much of the virtue.
If they show an excessive amount, it might tell you what they think of this year’s team.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 