The Weird Twists And Turns For Guardians This Year

We don’t think anyone could debate this has been a weird season for the Cleveland Guardians. They were coming off a 92 win season and a playoff appearance, and the front office even signed free agents to fill holes.

It just didn’t work out. The Guardians’ longest win streak all season has been four games, which coincidentally is also their longest losing streak. They just couldn’t build any momentum, either positive or negative all season long.

It was a season filled with weirdness and here were some of the strangest things we saw this year.

1). They carried three catchers most of the season, but started the season with Meibrys Viloria as the third backstop. He was on the roster for the first 35 games of the season, playing in 10 games, accumulating four plate appearances.

Talk about a waste of a roster spot.

2). After years of dominating the AL Central, the Guardians had a terrible time in the division this season, pretty much an explanation for their below .500 record. They won the series vs. Minnesota, ironically, but are just 15-21 against the other three teams who have a combined record of 181-278 (.394).

Weirdly enough, they’ve held their own against the teams likely to play in the post-season in the American League, going 27-24 vs. Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Minnesota, Houston, Seattle and Texas.

3). How about Zach Plesac’s fall from grace. Yes, he didn’t have a good year in 2022, but he still had a 4.31 ERA and allowed 136 hits in 131.1 innings.

This year, he simply imploded, allowing 18 earned runs in 21 innings and was sent to the minors by early May after just five starts, and designated for assignment later on. And to support the organization’s decision, he compiled a 6.08 ERA in AAA.

A far cry from his first two years in the bigs in 2019 and 2020.

4). The 1968 World Champion Detroit Tigers’ had a shortstop named Ray Oyler, who hit .135 for the season in 247 plate appearances. Cam Gallagher only has 142 times at bat, but he’s hitting .130 as the Guardians’ back up catcher, and somehow made it through the season on the big league roster.

He survived even though David Fry came up from AAA and demonstrated the ability to do a solid job behind the plate, and can swing the bat a bit.

5). How many times did Myles Straw, one of the league’s worst hitters with an OPS of 575 with a single home run on the year, bat in the late innings with the game on the line? In high leverage situations, Straw hit .198 with a 500 OPS.

And Terry Francona appeared irritated when asked why he didn’t pinch hit for Straw in these situations.

6). Speaking of Fry, he pitched more innings for the Guardians this season than August 31st waiver pick up Matt Moore. Fry went four innings on a Labor Day blowout loss against Minnesota, and Moore pitched in five games totaling 4.2 innings before being put on waivers again and being claimed by Miami.

7). Emmanuel Clase leads the AL in saves, and likely will do so for the second straight year. He also became the first Cleveland pitcher to have 40+ saves in consecutive seasons.

He also blew 12 save opportunities. He did that despite allowing just 2 home runs on the season. It seemed every softly hit ball against him found a hole, or the team played bad defense behind him.

It didn’t help that Cleveland had so many close games.

We didn’t even go into the voodoo that left-handed pitchers do to the team.

Hopefully, the Guardians don’t add to the strange doings on in the last week of this disappointing season.

Offense Has To Improve For Guards In ’24

The Cleveland Guardians used the end of August to add to their pitching staff, but didn’t do anything to improve their hitting.

They should get Josh Naylor back any day now (perhaps today!) and without question Kole Calhoun and Ramon Laureano have added something to the ability to score runs.

Calhoun has had a number of big hits, including a big double in last Sunday’s win over Toronto and the huge three run homer in the series finale in Minnesota.

The grizzled veteran has 16 RBIs in the 21 games he has been in a Cleveland uniform. By contrast, Oscar Gonzalez has played in 51 games this season, driving in 11. And Laureano had a nice series up north, hitting a pair of long balls.

He has a 688 OPS in the 20 contests he has played here, comparing that to Will Brennan (648) or Myles Straw (604).

This is exactly what we meant when we said the front office should have added some talent at the end of July, even if it meant the team only got better incrementally. It doesn’t always have to be a big splash.

Heading to 2024, the offense needs to get better, a lot better. Bill James says a hitter who has a .350 on base percentage and a .450 slugging percentage is a very good offensive player, demonstrating the ability to get on base and drive the ball.

Right now, Cleveland has one of these players, and of course it is Jose Ramirez, who has a .351 OBP and a .481 slugging average. Josh Naylor is close, getting on base at a .346 clip and slugging at .500.

No other Guardian with 100 at bats can claim to be over those thresholds individually, let alone together. The next best player at getting on base is Steven Kwan at .337, and the next best slugger is Bo Naylor at .430.

By contrast, the Texas Rangers, who lead the AL in runs scored have just two hitters (Corey Seager and Mitch Garver) who are over both the .350/.450 guideline. But they have four players who get on base over 35% of the time and Marcus Semien is sitting at .346.

FYI, they are very close to having four of these guys, because along with Semien, Nathaniel Lowe is slashing 374/447/821.

They also have six players who are slugging over .450.

Houston is third in runs scored, and they have five hitters who get on base at a 35% clip and five hitters who slug .450.

Tampa is second in the league in runs scored, and they have three players with an on base percentage over .350 and they have six players who have a slugging average over .450.

So, the challenge for the Guardians’ front office is to find more players who can get on base, we would say at least two of them, and find two or three players who can drive the ball.

Bo Naylor might fill one of those roles.

Of the teams that strike out the least in the AL, the Guardians have by far the least amount of homers with 103. The next lowest total of teams in the top five in contact? The Baltimore Orioles with 156!

Of that top five, Cleveland has also drawn the least amount of walks with 382. Boston is the next lowest at 413.

Making contact while hitting home runs can be done, the Guardians either have to find them or develop them. But having players who make contact, but don’t get on base and don’t get a lot of home runs doesn’t work.

It’s a big challenge for the Guardians’ front office this winter.

Guardians’ Season Sliding Away

After the trade deadline when the Guardians’ front office raised the white flag on the 2023 season, we were asked several questions on social media as to why we disagreed with the decision and why the players seemed angered about it.

As for the players, they don’t look at things the way the front office does, meaning they don’t care about next season. Trading their best and most veteran pitcher at the moment for someone who quite possibly could help in ’24 does nothing for them. Kyle Manzardo isn’t with them, so he is irrelevant.

What they think is they are one hot streak from taking control of the division, which is what the Minnesota Twins are doing right now. And now with the injuries to Josh Naylor and a likely suspension for Jose Ramirez, that winning streak will be very difficult to achieve.

Currently, the management of the team says the right things. They are working toward a post-season berth, they are trying to win every game they can. The second statement is true, because that’s how Terry Francona manages: You try to win the game you are playing today.

But with Naylor out and Josh Bell traded, an already struggling offense has lost two of their four best hitters. Simple math tells you the hitting isn’t going to improve because of that.

There have been some changes already noticeable. We have seen Will Brennan playing centerfield more often with Oscar Gonzalez playing right. The organization seems to be moving away slightly from Myles Straw, who frankly isn’t the same player as the one who came from Houston in 2021.

That player worked counts, drew walks, played great defense, and stole bases. Straw still has a very good glove but doesn’t do any of those other things.

We would also say if the Guardians aren’t going to make the playoffs, we don’t care where they finish, as long as they are doing due diligence for the future. So, if the team isn’t going to be contenders, why is a player like Cam Gallagher still on the roster?

If David Fry can catch, he and Bo Naylor should be catching every game at this point. And Gallagher is taking the spot on someone else who can be looked at.

The front office is doing that in some regards. Xzavion Curry seems to be getting a look at the fifth starter job. Brayan Rocchio has been called up and has been in the lineup each game. The Guardians want to see what Gabriel Arias can do on an everyday basis, and hopefully when Tyler Freeman comes back, he will be afforded the same responsibility.

If they want to carry three catchers to take advantage of David Fry’s versatility, then maybe take another look at Bryan Lavastida, who played here a bit last season. He has a 769 OPS between Columbus and Akron this year.

One other thing about building for the future. Your franchise player will turn 31 before the end of the calendar year, and Ramirez has stated he wants to win a World Series here. The front office needs to keep that in mind.

Guardians Deflecting On True Problems

We are not a psychologist or even an amateur one, but it seems like the people connected with the Cleveland Guardians are deflecting.

We have heard over the past few days that the reasons the Guards have struggled this season are the injuries to the starting rotation and the overall youth of the roster.

We respectfully say those are the easy reasons to point at, but we don’t believe they are true.

First, let’s look at the rotation. Yes, Cleveland is down three starters right now. Triston McKenzie has pretty much been out all season, making just two starts. Cal Quantrill, who soaked up a ton of innings a year ago, is out with a shoulder issue, and has missed roughly seven starts.

Shane Bieber is out with a forearm/elbow issue and has missed his last two starts, and Aaron Civale who is back now, but had to be replaced for about eight turns through the rotation earlier this season.

Blaming this for the Guardians inconsistent play would be valid if the pitchers who replaced the injured starters were not doing the job.

Here are the statistics for the primary starters who have filled in for those who have missed time on the injured list:

Tanner Bibee: 89.2 IP, 3.11 ERA, 91Ks, 31 BB in 16 starts
Logan Allen: 80.1 IP, 3.70 ERA, 80Ks, 28 BB in 15 starts
Gavin Williams: 33.2 IP, 3.74 ERA, 26Ks, 15 BB in 6 starts
Peyton Battenfield (as a starter): 32.2 IP, 4.68 ERA, 25 Ks, 8 BB in 6 starts

While perhaps Bieber and McKenzie might have done better, unless they were having a Cy Young type of year, it wouldn’t be greatly improved.

No, the pitching woes have more to do with the failure of the bullpen, particularly in the 8th inning, where the Guardians have struggled to get the game to Emmanuel Clase. Most of the relievers haven’t pitched as well as they did in 2022, which is what happens often to bullpens.

As for the youth of the team, the most disappointing members of the current roster in terms of offense were both veterans, Myles Straw and the recently dealt Amed Rosario. The only rookies the Guards have really used in high volume this season are Will Brennan and Bo Naylor.

We wish Brennan would get better plate discipline (40 Ks, 10 walks), but most fans would rather see Brennan move to centerfield in place of Straw. As for Naylor, the reason he was brought up was the terrible play of free agent Mike Zunino, and the rookie catcher has already hit one more homer and drove in as many runs as Zunino.

Straw is a great defender, but he and Rosario are among the worst offensive players in the game. And if the Guardians wanted to improve their run scoring ability, it would seem the easiest way to do it would be to change the roles of these two players.

There is no question the Guardians have been disappointing to date in 2023 coming off a division title last year. It seems like the organization is trying to put the blame in other places.

We are curious as to why.

The Weird Doings Of The ’23 Guardians

There is no getting around the inconsistency of the Cleveland Guardians season to date. Their longest winning streak to date has been four games. Their longest losing streak? Also, four games.

Fans are waiting for that hot streak, a week or so where the Guards rip off 10 wins in 12 games or win 14 of 18 contests. Just when you think the team can get some momentum, they stop it.

Last week, they blew out Pittsburgh in back-to-back games, and had a 4-0 lead in the series finale. They wound up dropping a 7-5 decision.

The inconsistency isn’t just on the field, it has extended off the field as well. Many of the decisions the front office and Terry Francona have made don’t seem to be logical, at least to the folks who follow the team.

First, we have the Myles Straw/Amed Rosario conundrum. The Guardians love Straw’s defense. He won the Gold Glove last season and justifiably so. He covers a lot of ground in the outfield and we are sure the pitchers love that.

Unfortunately, he is a terrible hitter, with an OPS of 617 (the league average is 724). To the organization though, his defense justifies his playing time.

But Rosario plays the most important defensive position on the diamond, and he is a poor defender. You might think he plays because he is a great offensive player, but he isn’t. His OPS is 657 (note the league average), and he doesn’t walk and doesn’t have a lot of pop.

So, our question if Straw plays because of his defense and Rosario plays essentially despite it, that doesn’t make sense, right?

Another puzzling thing is the handling of Xzavion Curry. Curry has done a very good job coming into games early when a starter has failed and soaking up innings to keep the rest of the bullpen rested.

He has a 2.87 ERA in 53 innings of work in 2023.

The Guardians also have a need for a 5th starter with the injuries to Shane Bieber, Triston McKenzie, and Cal Quantrill.

After Sunday’s game, Francona said he didn’t want Curry to pitch more than three innings so he wouldn’t lose him for 3-4 days. You mean like a starting pitcher?

Curry was a starter in the minor leagues and has thrown as many as 67 pitches this season, although that was early in the year. Over the last month, he has tossed a high of 45 pitches and threw 42 on Sunday. He threw 39 in his previous outing, so they could have had him go to around 55 against the Phillies.

Our question is instead of using Curry as a starter going forward, you would rather have him available in case a starting pitcher gets hit around? It would seem to us that you could have a pitcher like Hunter Gaddis serve that role and see if Curry can lend some stability to the rotation.

We know “openers” and “bullpen games” are part of the sport, but it is still better if you can put someone on the mound to start the game, and have that guy throw at least six effective innings.

Just two weird things the Guardians are doing this year. We could also include the penchant for letting Straw hit with the game on the line, giving up an out to move a runner into scoring position for hitters like Cam Gallagher, and continuing to carry three catchers on the big league roster.

When you aren’t winning on a regular basis, these things make people scratch their heads. And it’s not like these questions come out of left field (no pun intended).

Status Quo Should Be Over For Guardians, Time To Act That Way

Before the 2023 baseball season started, we thought it would be very difficult to evaluate what kind of season the Cleveland Guardians would have because most of the key players from last season had no proven track record.

We still thought the Guards would prevail in the AL Central, but our worst fears appear to have come true about the first- and second-year players who helped the team get to the playoffs in 2022.

Josh Naylor is the only Cleveland hitter performing better than they did a year ago. That’s a big reason why the team ranks 12th in the league in runs scored. The bullpen, so solid down the stretch last season, is springing leaks seemingly on a weekly basis.

The only statistic that says the Guardians are a contending team is the number we see every day in the standings. The column “GB”, games behind.

Despite all the problems the Guards have had this year, they are still just 1-1/2 games behind the first place Minnesota Twins as we near the end of July.

Which makes it all the more maddening that the organization seems to go with the status quo in terms of the everyday lineup. They have been forced to make changes in the starting rotation, but that’s due to the injuries suffered by Aaron Civale, Triston McKenzie, and now, Shane Bieber.

Over the weekend, The Plain Dealer ran an article about the hitting philosophy of the organization and Terry Pluto’s column discussed improving the offense. We aren’t a genius, but a good start to improving the hitting might be to stop giving the worst offensive player in the league three at bats per game.

We are talking about Myles Straw of course. It’s time to make him a defensive replacement. We would add pinch-runner as well, but Straw has stopped running for whatever reason. It has been two months since his last stolen base.

That’s absurd.

Another question is when will the front office and skipper give Tyler Freeman regular playing time so they can find out if he can be a major league regular, be it at SS or 2B? Perhaps you could give him more time at the expense of the second lowest OPS in the batting order, that being Amed Rosario.

Yes, we have officially entered the patience vs. stubbornness phase of the season.

Sunday, the Guards lost a three-run lead (thanks to David Fry, who should share time at catcher. Cam Gallagher is superfluous) because the bench refused to be at least a little uneasy about Trevor Stephan pitching the eighth.

Stephan has been shaky as of late, and as soon as he walked Marcus Semien with one out (AND A THREE RUN LEAD!), someone should have started warming up. We aren’t a pitching coach, but it certainly has looked like Stephan is aiming the ball lately instead of trusting his stuff.

That would mean it’s a confidence problem.

Instead, he walked a second hitter and then gave up three straight hits before he was removed. It’s almost like it was a spring training game and he had to get his work in.

As we said before, the only thing that makes this edition of the Guardians a contending team is the games behind column. That’s why the time to sit back and do nothing should be ended.

And we aren’t just talking about Terry Francona either. The front office had a bad off-season. The signings of Josh Bell and Mike Zunino haven’t panned out. But they have time to improve things over the next couple of weeks.

With Bieber injured, they really don’t have anything to sell, but again, get a starting pitcher, re-arrange the bullpen based on current results, and stop gifting playing time based on 2023.

A disappointing season to date can still be salvaged.

Some Things We Would Like To See In Second Half For Guardians

Baseball’s All Star break is upon us, and the Cleveland Guardians somehow go into their mini-vacation (except for Jose Ramirez) with a half game lead in the American League Central Division despite a .500 record.

To be fair, since they fell to their low point of the season on May24th at 21-28, the Guardians have gone 24-17 and not all of the games were against the A’s and Royals.

The offense has improved a bit, moving up to 12th in the league in runs scored per game, and the pitching is still 6th in the AL in ERA, despite having three rookies in the rotation for much of the year.

One problem for the Guardians is that the Twins have an easier schedule the rest of the way, but Cleveland has played better than Minnesota in games vs. teams above the .500 mark, going 17-20, while the Twins are just 21-28.

So, maybe the tougher slate isn’t the disadvantage it seems to be.

After all that, here are some things we would like to see for the Guardians in the second half (besides a long winning streak that would salt away another division title):

More playing time for Tyler Freeman. Freeman had 72 plate appearances in the first half, collecting 20 hits for a batting average of .308 and an on base average of .352. We understand that Terry Francona feels incumbent shortstop Amed Rosario is a culture setter, but why can’t Freeman be as well?

It was only a few weeks ago that Freeman went from first to third on the wild pitch, so he’s seems to be an aggressive baserunner like Rosario. And he might be a better hitter and a better glove. It feels like the organization needs to find a way to pencil him in the batting order more often.

Flexibility With Myles Straw. We aren’t going to bash Straw here. He’s a tremendous defensive centerfielder, perhaps the best currently in the sport. But both the organization and Straw himself both have to make some changes.

When the Guardians take the field Friday night in Texas, they will be just a few days shy of the last stolen base for a player who swiped 30 bags in 2021 and 21 bases a year ago being two months ago. He simply has to run more often. He has great wheels.

And the organization has to change and stop letting him hit in situation with the game on the line and other options available. Do they think they will hurt the centerfielder’s feelings if the pinch hit for him?

There have been at least three games this year where the highest leverage at bat in the game was taken by Straw, who has an OPS under 600 over the last two years. That shouldn’t happen.

Figure Out The 8th. For all of the hand wringing around Emmanuel Clase, who is second in the AL in saves and has allowed just two homers on the season, the biggest problem for the Cleveland relief corps in the 8th.

The latest problem was Saturday, when a three run lead was a great relay away from being coughed up by Sam Hentges and Enyel De Los Santos.

The two relievers who started the year primarily in that role were Trevor Stephan and James Karinchak, and both gave up six homers. Stephan still in used in the 8th and is still falling behind a lot of hitters.

Hentges rescued Clase in the Cubs’ series and we felt he was poised to take over the 8th, but he’s allowed four runs in his last 1.2 frames. Maybe go back to De Los Santos more often? Eli Morgan has been pretty good, but he’s prone to the long ball.

The bullpen has to get back to the point where having a lead after seven means the game is in the bag. That will be a big factor if the Guards want to go on a hot streak in the second half this year.

Guardians Make Contact, But Don’t Walk

Last season, the Cleveland Guardians decided to zag when everyone else was zigging and embraced a philosophy of making more contact at the plate. They struck out the least times in the American League, and finished sixth in the league in runs scored per game.

This year, they are doing the same, but have dropped to 12th in the AL in scoring. Last year, they were 14th in home runs and in 2023 they are last.

Other teams have labeled them as pesky, but there is one thing we thought would improve this season, but really hasn’t. Last season, they were 11th in drawing walks and so far this season, they have dropped a spot and rank 12th.

So, while they make contact more than anyone else, they aren’t particularly adept at working counts and fouling off borderline pitches until they get something they can make solid contact with.

The team with the second least strikeouts in the AL is the Houston Astros. They rank 11th in walks drawn and are 8th in runs scored. They are 9th in homers.

Toronto fans the third least times and are one spot above Houston is terms of runs scored and walks, and is one spot behind them in round trippers.

For right now, it appears the contact approach isn’t doing teams any big favors, except for the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are second last in the National League in striking out and is 3rd in the league in runs scored.

Let us say here, we like the more contact approach, and we like the Guardians’ organizational philosophy of drafting and developing guys who make contact and teaching them to drive the ball in the minor leagues.

We also don’t have a problem with strikeouts if it comes with power and without a total disregard for knowledge of the strike zone. Minnesota leads the AL in whiffs, and they aren’t scoring many more runs than the Guardians.

Maybe better recognition of the strike zone comes with more experience and as the young Cleveland hitters mature, they will be able to work more walks. The only Guardian hitter with more walks than whiffs is Jose Ramirez, with 33 bases on balls and 29 punchouts.

Both Andres Gimenez (47 Ks, 15 BB) and Amed Rosario (60K, 19 BB) have strikeout to walk ratios of over three to one. And neither are what you would consider power bats. Myles Straw doesn’t have a home run since 2021 and has fanned 57 times with just 26 walks.

And Will Brennan doesn’t have the amount of at bats as the other three mentioned, but he has just six walks vs. 31 strikeouts. The four hitters listed have combined for 10 home runs.

We would like to see all three of these guys get on base more often by walking, and with their speed (see previous blog) they could be converting some of those walks into doubles by stealing bases.

Currently, Cleveland has no one ranking in the top ten in the AL in on base percentage, Ramirez leads the team at .360 and only Steven Kwan is among the leaders in walks, tied for 10th.

By the way, the Guardians have drawn four or more walks in 29 games this season. Their record is 18-11 in those games, averaging almost six runs per game. We understand that makes sense, because mediocre pitchers usually walk more batters.

Since the Guardians don’t have a lot of home run power, for their approach to work, it would seem they need more baserunners. And taking more walks would accomplish that goal.

Why Have Guardians Stopped Stealing?

When the Cleveland Guardians played the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night, we heard the broadcast team describe both teams as “they like to run”. The Brewers rank 6th in the National League in steals, while the Guardians are 7th.

The reality is while Cleveland started the season running quite a bit, that has waned as the season has gone on.

The Guards stole 35 bases in March/April in the first 28 games of the year. Since then, they have played 49 games and have only stolen 22 bases. They’ve effectively stopped running.

Granted, they were very successful in the first month, being caught just seven times. In May, they swiped 13 bases and were caught just three times, so when they did run, it worked.

In June, they are just a bit above the break-even point, picking up nine bags, while getting caught on eight attempts.

Cleveland ranks last in the majors in home runs, so it would seem they better use the running game to their advantage because it is unlikely they will score with one swing of the bat.

Some of the lack of running comes from not being on base. The team’s two leaders in steals, Steven Kwan and Myles Straw have seen their on base percentage decrease since April. Kwan stole seven bags in eight tries by the end of April. He’s stolen just three in each month succeeding.

Straw pilfered eight bases in the first 28 games this year, but has stolen just two since, incredibly none since May 18th.

The two other Guardians who would seem to be able to put up big stolen base numbers, Andres Gimenez and Amed Rosario have also declined in this category.

Gimenez stole six in March/April being caught just once, but has stolen just two bags since, while Rosario swiped five in the first month, three more in May, and hasn’t even made an attempt since the first of June.

We understand the hesitation in having Rosario run since he hits ahead of Jose Ramirez, but if Ramirez doesn’t get a hit, why not run then?

Jose Ramirez is also a stolen base threat, but we totally get him not running as much. Conserve his energy as much as possible. He’s that important to the team.

This weekend showed a difference in the philosophies between the Brewers and Guardians. Twice, Milwaukee runners (Christian Yelich and Blake Perkins) ran on the first pitch after getting on base. When was the last time a Cleveland player did that?

When Myles Straw pinch-ran for Tyler Freeman (who went from 1st to 3rd on a wild pitch earlier in the game, but…) in the 8th on Sunday, it took him two batters to attempt to steal.

Now, we are sure some will say the Brewers had two runners picked off. Our response would be that’s the risk you have to take if you are going to run, and again, with the Guardians’ lack of pop, they need to be aggressive on the base paths.

Cleveland is very effective in taking the extra base. They are 5th in the AL in doubles and 2nd in triples. And they go first to third on base hits with the best of them.

We don’t know why the Guardians have stopped stealing since the first month of the year. It’s odd to be sure. Is it a fear of having a runner thrown out? Is it trying to minimize wear and tear on players?

It is probably more apt to say the Guardians are a very good baserunning team rather than a team that likes to steal. We say, why not be good at both?

Straw’s Offensive Woes Making Us Forget The Glove At Times

We want Myles Straw to work out. After coming over from Houston at the trade deadline in 2021, Straw hit .285 in 60 games, getting on base at a .362 clip. He stole 13 bases and even hit two home runs.

Since the 2021 season ended, so has Straw’s offensive production. He has 761 at bats in that time span, collecting 170 hits, a .223 batting average. His walk rate has also dropped, going from 10.8% when he first arrived in Cleveland to 9.1% last year and 9.2% this season.

And he famously is the only major league regular player to not have hit a home run since the ’21 season concluded.

His line drive rate, a little over 30% with the Astros, and 36.5% in the 60 games with the Indians in ’21 has dropped to just under 25% this season. Although he’s never been a pull hitter, he did it around 19% of the time in 2020 and 2021.

That percentage has dropped to 8.6% this season.

Straw is a tremendous defensive centerfielder, a Gold Glove winner last season. However, we like to point out that the great Ozzie Smith hit .211 in his second year in the big leagues with a 522 OPS. And if he didn’t steadily improve on those numbers, not only would he not be in Cooperstown, he also wouldn’t have played 19 years in the majors.

The point there being you have to be at least a respectable hitter to play at the big league hitter.

We are sure Straw would like to be better with a bat in his hand, but the results aren’t there. In the second game in San Diego this past week, Straw was due up with the bases loaded in the 7th inning of a game where the Guardians were trailing 4-0.

We instantly said (before the result) that Terry Francona had to send up a pinch-hitter, either Gabriel Arias (decent numbers vs. RHP although a small sample size, also a threat to hit a HR) or Tyler Freeman (solid contact hitter), but the skipper let Straw bat.

He struck out.

We aren’t going to get into what was said after the game, but it was odd at best.

We understand Straw is never going to be Tony Gwynn or Jose Ramirez at the plate. However, it would be great if he could develop a skill of fouling off pitches, working counts, so he could draw more walks and being able to bunt. We have heard on broadcasts that he is a terrible bunter. Why not working on that?

And it would be even better if he started stealing again. He hasn’t stolen a base since May 18th. With his speed, we were shocked by that.

If this were the 1995 Indians, the team could live with Straw’s defense, but this Cleveland squad is currently 12th in the league in runs scored per game. Perhaps a boost in the offensive production at the catcher spot with Bo Naylor’s arrival (not saying he’s Johnny Bench, just saying the Guards should get at least a bit better offense) will help hide Straw in the batting order.

We thought back to the 1986 New York Mets, when manager Dave Johnson would famously start Kevin Mitchell at shortstop from time to time (Mitchell was better suited as a LF or DH). Johnson’s rationale was let the Mets get the lead and then he’d get Mitchell out of there for a better defender.

Perhaps the Guardians should think about using Straw that way. Get a lead, and even if it’s in the 5th inning, put him in the game to take advantage of his defense.

In the meantime, if Straw doesn’t add some things to his game that make him a better hitter, he’s going to be someone managers will be looking to replace in the lineup.