The Cleveland baseball team ended it’s season on Sunday, just missing a non-losing season at 80-82, their first non-winning season since 2012, when they finished 68-94 and Manny Acta lost his job.
They finished 13 games out of first in the AL Central, and 12 games out of a wild card spot, but despite almost breaking even this year, hopefully the ownership and front office realize there is a lot to fix if they want to be in the hunt for a playoff spot in 2022.
There are a lot of weaknesses on this ballclub that need to be addressed. According to Baseballreference.com, the Guardians have the worst catching in the American League, the second worst play out of their first basemen, and the fourth worst second base play.
Looking at the division winning White Sox, they have no positions ranking last or second to last in terms of value. NOTE: This is using WAR.
No doubt this organization values defense and handling a pitching staff at the catching position, but Austin Hedges and Roberto Perez were pretty much useless with a bat in their hands this season.
Hedges hit 30 points higher than Perez (.178 vs. .149) but still had a lower OPS (527 vs. 564) because he simply refuses to walk. It is doubtful (to us) that both will return in ’22, and our guess is that Hedges will be the regular. He is younger and makes less money.
Cleveland simply needs to get more offense out of the position going forward.
At first base, while Bobby Bradley looks like Ted Williams compared to Jake Bauers, especially in the power department, the fact remains, the Guardians need more offense out of the position. Bradley did slug 16 home runs, but by and large is an out maker, with an on base percentage of just .294.
He also still has severe contact issues, fanning 99 times in 279 plate appearances.
We are a little bit more optimistic at second, because we think Owen Miller’s minor league hitting prowess will translate. That said, it didn’t in the second half, but he did hit .236 (638 OPS) in the second half.
If we were in charge, he would get the first shot at the everyday job in spring training.
This team also needs guys who can get on base, and by this we mean not “out makers”. The only measurement of baseball is the number of outs, and Cleveland has a lot of players who make a lot of outs.
It is not a surprise that the top five teams in runs scored in the AL all rank in the top six in the league in on base percentage. We understand you need extra base hits too, to get those runners home, but the Indians/Guardians/Tribe has one player that gets on base more than 35% of the time: Jose Ramirez. Myles Straw fell just short at .349.
And there are not many who avoid making outs in more than 70% of the plate appearances either. The next closest player to Straw is the strikeout prone, hit by pitch king Bradley Zimmer at .325, followed by Franmil Reyes at .324, and then Amed Rosario, who finished at .321, despite a .282 batting average.
By the way, that’s tough to do.
We talked about catcher, 1B, and 2B, but in reality, Cleveland should be satisfied only with Ramirez, Reyes, and Straw. They should be looking for an upgrade at every other spot.
That’s a tall task for the front office.
You win with pitching, but you have to score runs to get to the post-season. Four of the playoff teams in the American League rank in the top five in the league in runs scored.
Cleveland has to improve their offense next season. Hopefully, the front office isn’t fooled by some brief glimpses of hope by certain players in the last two months of the 2021 season.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 