Have Guardians Mishandled Middle Infield Prospects

Following the 2021 season, the Cleveland Guardians had five prospects who were consensus top 100 players, and three were middle infielders: Tyler Freeman, Brayan Rocchio, and Gabriel Arias.

At that time, Cleveland had Amed Rosario as the starting shortstop and also had 22-year-old Andres Gimenez, the biggest piece the organization received in the Francisco Lindor trade. Gimenez hit .218 with 5 homers and 18 RBIs (633 OPS) in 188 at bats that season, so he hadn’t established himself as of yet.

Two years later, and the three highly rated prospects are still kind of in limbo.

Arias was given the starting shortstop job after Rosario was moved at this year’s trading deadline, after spending the first part of the year playing first base and right field.

Since assuming the position on August 1st, Arias has batted .218 (29 for 133) with 5 HR and 15 runs batted in, a 632 OPS.

Freeman has received sporadic playing time all year, hitting .240 with a 631 OPS, and Rocchio has spent most of the season in Columbus, hitting .284 with a 796 OPS, but in 70 plate appearances in the big leagues, he hit .242 with a 574 OPS, striking out 22 times.

The point here is not to criticize the players, but rather question the organization for kind of mangling the entire situation.

The purpose of having prospects is to keep the talent flow going through the organization or to use them to get players who are needed at the big-league level. And if you have someone blocking that player and you believe in them, you can move them to another position.

A good example is Jose Ramirez. Ramirez played primarily second base in the minor leagues, but when he was coming up the then Indians had Jason Kipnis, a solid player at his position. So, they moved Ramirez to third base, where he has become a perennial all-star.

So, with the situation for Cleveland after the ’21 season, a decision should have been made to either trade Rosario, making room for Arias, Freeman, or Rocchio, trade one or two of the trio, or moving them to another position.

You could say they tried the latter for Arias, and is his case, he also had some injuries during last year, but again, we are saying this decision should have been made prior to last season.

It is very likely that all three’s value has been diminished since the lack of decision after the 2021 season. They are no longer prospects, so now they are simply young players who have never proven anything at the major league level.

Rocchio might have the highest trade value right now, because he’s had a pretty solid year at AAA.

And compounding this situation is that the Guardians have Jose Tena, who is currently on the big-league roster and Juan Brito, who came over in the trade for Nolan Jones this off-season.

By the way, we have advocated for position changes for Freeman and Brito about a month ago.

It seems like the front office seems reticent to make a mistake, trading the wrong player. But you also have to strike while the iron is hot. We aren’t saying it is easy, but trading a prospect at the right time is an art.

However, what the Guardians have done is not taken advantage of the number of high prospect middle infielders they’ve had and converting them into players they could use.

Instead, they’ve become marginal big leaguers who they can’t find at bats for.

Much like telling a pitcher to “trust his stuff”, the Guardians’ front office needs to trust their judgment. Two years later, they still have a lot of middle infield prospects who are ranked highly.

Let’s see if they have learned from their mistake.

Hope Guardians’ Front Office Knows What They Don’t Know

The Cleveland Guardians have just 15 games remaining in what has been a very disappointing season.

Before the season we said it was very difficult to project how the team would do because most of the players had no proven track record because they were so young and had no experience.

For example, it was probably fool’s gold to say Jose Ramirez would duplicate what he did last season, which was likely a career year. But since Ramirez has been the league for a long time, you can feel pretty confident in saying he will hit 25 home runs, knock in 90-100, and bat around .280.

You couldn’t say that about anyone else projected to be in this season’s starting lineup.

Last season, Andres Gimenez was spectacular, hitting 17 homers and batting .297 with an 837 OPS. This season, his batting average has dropped to .242, his power has dropped 12 dingers.

What kind of player is Gimenez? Defensively, he has remained great, deserving of a second Gold Glove. Offensively? We will likely find out next season. We think you can figure somewhere in the middle, around a 760 OPS which with his glove, makes him a middle infield starter.

Where? He may move back to shortstop, and frankly, he would be our first choice at the position.

Steven Kwan has been reliable compared to most of the balance of the starting lineup, but his numbers have also regressed, dropping from a 772 OPS in ’22 to 715 in ’23. Most of that drop has been his on base percentage, which is .341 compared to .372 a year ago.

If Kwan can get to .350, he’s a solid leadoff hitter and we still think he can become a guy who can get to 10 homers on a yearly basis.

The only players who have exceeded expectations among the everyday players share the same last name: Naylor.

Josh is heading into his prime and raised his OPS from 771 to 849. If not for an oblique injury which cost him August, we would have knocked in 100 runs and still could do it with a hot finish. Again, he’s just 26 years old.

Bo Naylor has greatly improved the team’s offense at the catcher position. Last season, Austin Hedges and Luke Maile combined for 10 homers and 47 RBIs, and a .185 batting average.

Naylor has a 757 OPS, third best on the team for players with over 100 at bats. Why he doesn’t hit higher in the order, particularly in the last month when he has compiled a 1045 OPS (.315 average, 4 HR, 10 RBI) is one of the great mysteries surrounding the team.

Of course, he will go into next season in the same boat as Gimenez and Kwan. That is, with no track record.

So, unless some experienced players are brought in, the Guardians won’t be in a much different position entering 2024. If players like Gabriel Arias or Tyler Freeman are starting, no one will have any idea how they will be able to contribute offensively.

It will still be dependent on Ramirez and Josh Naylor to provide offense and that doesn’t seem like a recipe for success.

Guardians Should Heed Peter Brand: “He Gets On Base”

There is a famous scene in the movie “Moneyball” where in a meeting of talent evaluators, GM Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, brings up a player and asks the group why he likes that player.

The assistant GM Peter Brand (really Paul DePodesta) played by Jonah Hill replies “he gets on base”.

That is a credo the Cleveland Guardians should use going forward toward 2024.

We all understand the Guardians need power too. They are last in all of baseball with just 106 home runs and rank 13th the American League in slugging percentage. We know they stress contact, striking out the least in the league, but are only 9th in the AL in on base percentage.

If you don’t have power, you better have a lot of guys getting on base. You see, “he gets on base” translates to “he doesn’t make outs”.

The three best Cleveland players to avoid making outs are Jose Ramirez with a .349 on base average, with Josh Naylor at .347, followed by Steven Kwan at .340. The next best player is Bo Naylor at .320.

The two players who joined the Guardians in August, veterans Kole Calhoun and Ramon Laureano are next at .319 and .318 each.

And since the game of baseball is measured by 27 outs, having guys who make a lot of outs is not good in terms of scoring runs.

We aren’t sure the front office thinks getting on base (err, not making outs) is a valuable skill. For exhibit A, we present Yandy Diaz.

Diaz certainly wasn’t the hitter he is today in Tampa (889 OPS), but what he did do here was get on base. He had a .361 OBP in the 88 games he played in Cleveland in 2017-18.

Last season, the Guardians traded two young outfielders, Nolan Jones and Will Benson. Their on base averages in AAA were .388 and .396 respectively. To be fair, they did receive Juan Brito for Jones, and he has a career .393 OBP in the minors to date.

The player they kept instead, Will Brennan, had a .367 OBP at the AAA level. This isn’t to bash Brennan, who seems to have improved after a mid-season slump. But he’s walked 12 times all season, less than Mike Zunino and the same number of times as Calhoun.

By the way, Jones and Benson both have a .367 OBP in the major leagues this season. That number would be the highest on the 2023 Guardians.

What is we told you they have a player on their current roster who got on base at a .393 clip at the AAA level? That player is Tyler Freeman and they can’t find a place for him right now.

We are sure there are other examples, but in 2016, Cleveland had veteran switch-hitter Robbie Grossman in training camp. Grossman has a career mark of getting on base at a .344 clip. Grossman played part of ’16 with Columbus, before being released in May.

He went to Minnesota, where he recorded OBPs of .386, .361, and .367 over the next three seasons.

We think the Cleveland organization is searching for the long ball so much, they are forgetting there are two aspects to offense, and the ability to get on base is one of them. And quite frankly, it’s probably easier to identify and obtain.

Remember this, a player with a 1.000 slugging percentage simply went 1 for 4 with a HR. A game in which a team had a 1.000 OBP would never end.

Talking About The Glut At 2B/SS For The Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians have been collecting middle infield prospects for the past few seasons. They either signed or drafted Tyler Freeman, Brayan Rocchio, Jose Tena, Angel Martinez, and Milan Tolentino.

They traded for Andres Gimenez, Gabriel Arias, and Juan Brito. And this is all in the six or seven years.

Plus, they acquired Amed Rosario in the Francisco Lindor trade.

The theory is sound. Middle infielders are usually great athletes and in high school the best player is usually the shortstop unless he throws left-handed. Because they are great athletes, they are equipped to move around the diamond and play other positions.

For example, we have seen Cleveland move Arias to first base and to right field, when help was needed at both spots.

The problem for the organization is the last time we checked, you can only play two people in a game at the middle infield spots, one at second base and one at shortstop.

So, decisions have to be made, but so far, they haven’t.

After the trade of Rosario to Los Angeles, the Guardians called up Rocchio from AAA, giving them Arias, Rocchio, Freeman, as well as Gimenez, the starting second baseman, on the big league roster.

As we noted, they have used Arias at 1B and RF, and Rocchio has played third as well as shortstop, and Freeman has been used at 2B, SS, and 3B, the latter position usually manned by the team’s resident superstar, Jose Ramirez.

We believe the organization feels (again, opinion) Rocchio is the heir apparent at some point, perhaps next season. He’s probably the best mix or glove and bat.

So, that leads us to ask what should be done with the others? There is no question the Guardians need hitting. They rank 12th in the American League in runs scored.

Freeman, who just turned 24, can hit. He’s a .311 hitter in the minor leagues with a 813 OPS, and at AAA, he batted .289 with a 782 OPS. In the big leagues on a limited basis, he’s batted .267 in 181 plate appearances.

That may not be great, but outside of Ramirez, Josh Naylor, and Steven Kwan, no one else on the current roster is doing it.

Why do we like him? To quote Peter Brand in “Moneyball”, he gets on base.

Brito, who will soon be 22 and he has shown to be a very good hitter in the minor leagues, batting .286 with an 877 OPS last season in the Rockies’ organization and batting .293 with an 847 OPS between Lake County and Akron this year.

Our question is why not find spots for these two to play? The Guardians have a gaping hole in the outfield, and they already tried Arias there, so why not Freeman and Brito?

Add in the organization’s philosophy of finding hitters who have good contact rates and teaching them to drive the ball. Both Freeman and Brito put the ball in play.

Robin Yount was an excellent SS who moved to CF later in his career. Rick Manning started as a SS and became a Gold Glove centerfielder. Why not start using Freeman out there to get his bat in the lineup.

As for Brito, we have read scouting reports that say he’s limited to 2B defensively, so why not start moving him to the outfield.

The minor league people will say the players lose value once you move them off the dirt, but are the Guardians trying to have the “most valuable” farm system, or is their goal to win games?

Besides, they have plenty of middle infielders capable of playing the positions at the AAA and AA levels.

Hopefully, when Freeman comes off the IL this week, his name is in the lineup on a daily basis. The organization needs to see if his bat can play at the major league level.

And if Brito is as good a hitter as scouts think, the Guardians need to figure out a way to find him a place to play in Cleveland.

Guards Just Keep Getting Bad News.

If the trades made earlier in the week didn’t deal a crushing blow to the post-season hopes of the Cleveland Guardians. Friday’s news didn’t help.

Josh Naylor went on the injured list with a strained oblique and the team offered that he will be out 3-6 weeks, a rather vague length of time. Naylor currently ranks 5th in the league in batting average and third in RBIs, and provided solid protection for Jose Ramirez.

And while we understand the logic of the Josh Bell deal to Miami because the Guards would be on the hook for $16 million next season as Bell was not going to decline his option, the fact remains that the 12th best scoring offense in the AL has now lost two of their five best producers.

Too bad the just acquired Kyle Manzardo isn’t ready to play.

It’s funny that everyone complained about the Guardians not being able to find playing time for some of their young players throughout the first four months of the season, and now, they have nothing but opportunities for them.

One player who won’t be able to take advantage for now is a guy we have clamored to see more of in Tyler Freeman. Freeman also went on the IL with a shoulder issue, and hopefully he will be back before Naylor.

For now, we will likely see a lot of David Fry and Gabriel Arias at first, we guess, with possibly a little of newcomer, veteran Kole Calhoun, acquired from the Dodgers after hitting .297 with a 906 OPS in AAA this season.

Keep in mind though, in 125 games with Texas last season (in the big leagues) he hit .196 with a 587 OPS.

Brayan Rocchio, probably the Guardians’ top prospect will come up and get regular time at SS, we would imagine. A switch-hitter, he batted .291 with a .383 on base percentage at Columbus this season, and we have heard folks complain about his lack of pop this year (he hit 18 homers last year), his slugging percentage is just slightly off from a year ago, because he had 26 doubles and five triples at AAA.

With the DH slot opened up, Jose Ramirez will be able to get off his feet at times, and we would imagine Oscar Gonzalez will get plenty of time there as well. Gonzalez was called up after Cleveland moved Amed Rosario last week, and has gone 6 for 16 since returning to the big club.

Speaking of Rosario, is anyone else amazed that all of a sudden, he can play other positions? If you haven’t noticed, he’s playing second base with the Dodgers. Why didn’t the Guardians move him there? We think everyone would agree the Guards’ defense would have been better had Andres Gimenez and Rosario simply swapped spots.

And lastly, it looks like the club is finally going to see what Xzavion Curry can do with the fifth spot in the rotation. He will start today and stay in the rotation going forward. We believe that decision is about a month too late.

Meanwhile, Cleveland still hovers just 3.5 games out of first in the AL Central.

With the injuries to Naylor and the trades of Civale and Bell, it would seem the chance of defending the division title grows smaller each day, but here we are.

We know the players will keep grinding. But will that be enough. The fact that the team is gritty is probably the biggest reason they were upset with the front office on August 1st.

Is Rosario Trade The First Shoe To Drop?

The Cleveland Guardians took their first step in rebuilding their roster before the trade deadline when they dealt SS Amed Rosario to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Reportedly, the Guards are getting RHP Noah Syndergaard and cash in return.

Reports are Cleveland is not releasing the veteran right-hander.

Moving Rosario helps clear up some of the glut of middle infielders Cleveland has either at the big-league level or in the high minors.

When the Guards moved Francisco Lindor to the Mets, we said Andres Gimenez was the key to the trade because Rosario doesn’t walk much and doesn’t have much pop. He has to hit in the .280 range to have value, and he did that in his first two seasons here but dropped to .265 this year.

Add that to his poor defensive work at shortstop, and it was time for Cleveland to take a look at other options.

What didn’t or doesn’t help Rosario’s cause is he didn’t seem to either embrace or take to any position changes. He played 24 games combined in the outfield his first two years with the Guardians but didn’t appear to be comfortable. He could be a bigger asset to a team playing vs. lefties and being a “super utility” type player.

Terry Francona always referred to Rosario and Jose Ramirez setting the tone for the team in terms of playing hard and being aggressive on the basepaths, and that was invaluable to the young Guardians in 2022 and carried over this season.

Now, who moves into the SS role in Cleveland? Gabriel Arias is the best defender, but he hasn’t been able to hit (590 OPS, 52 strikeouts in 162 plate appearances). Brayan Rocchio is probably the future at the spot, and is hitting .295 (804 OPS) at Columbus.

However, we would like to see Tyler Freeman get the first shot there. Freeman would be an upgrade defensively, and in his limited appearances seems to be a better offensive player with a 723 OPS. Rosario’s OPS was 675.

It seems in the organization’s best interest to see what Freeman, a career .312 hitter in the minors (813) can do with everyday playing time.

Syndergaard has been terrible with the Dodgers, compiling a 7.16 ERA this season in 12 starts, allowing a whopping 71 hits and 12 long balls in 55.1 innings. He is currently on the 15 day injured list.

He hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since June 7th when he allowed six runs in three innings at Cincinnati. So, don’t look for him to jump immediately into the Cleveland rotation.

It’s probably a little bit of we will make the deal if you take the balance of Syndergaard’s contract.

What the Guardians do get to do is have the opportunity to diagnose whatever problems he’s been having, perhaps it’s a mechanical issue. Last year, he was 10-10 with a 3.94 ERA in 135 innings between the Angels and Phillies. So, it’s not like he is far removed from being an effective starting pitcher.

Our guess is this isn’t the only move team president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff will make before Monday.

You also have to wonder if the front office made the move to eliminate the temptation to put him in the lineup on a daily basis.

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.

How Do Young Players Get Time On A Contender? Produce.

The Cleveland Guardians have a conundrum when it comes to playing young players. While conventional wisdom would say you need to give guys coming up from the minor leagues time to fail first, when you are still in a competitive situation, that luxury isn’t there.

We have heard the refrain before and still hear it when it comes to players like Nolan Jones and Will Benson, although the reasons for trading both of those guys were related to the 40-man roster.

The latest young Guardians’ player that engenders this debate is Gabriel Arias. Arias came over to the organization in the massive haul that was the Mike Clevinger deal from the Padres and was rated as a Top 100 Prospect by both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus

Arias is a defensive wizard. He is a shortstop by trade, but has shown the versatility to play other positions very well. He played first base in the playoffs a year ago and has been playing quite a bit of right field this season.

However, he’s never been an elite hitter. His career OPS at the AAA level is 768, mostly because he has had issues controlling the strike zone with 188 strikeouts and 64 walks in 806 plate appearances. His OPS for his minor league career is 735.

Those issues have carried with him in the big leagues, where this year he is hitting .187 with a 606 OPS, and 50 punchouts in 154 times at the dish.

By contrast, Tyler Freeman has a career OPS in the minors of 813, carrying a .312 batting average and a 785 OPS in AAA. His credentials say he’s a better hitter than Arias.

Arias started getting some regular playing time starting May 16th and hit home runs in starts on May 18th and 19th, in the latter game it was a dinger which gave the Guardians the lead in extra innings vs. the Mets.

From May 18th through June 3rd, a span of 15 games, Arias went 12 for 40, a .300 batting average with eight walks and eight strikeouts. That’s promising.

From June 4th through today, Arias has received 34 at bats and recorded just three hits (.088) with six walks and 12 whiffs.

As we said earlier, if the Guardians were the Oakland A’s or Kansas City Royals, they could just ride out Arias’ (or any young player’s) cold streaks and hope they come out better for it. They just don’t have that option right now.

A team in contention for a playoff spot needs players who can contribute when called upon. Is that fair? No, it isn’t and frankly, we believe the Guardians’ brass would agree with that.

And make no mistake, with Jose Ramirez still in his prime, the front office should be feeling pressure to win and win now.

Two other young players, Tyler Freeman and David Fry, haven’t had nearly the opportunity afforded Arias, who the organization was trying to create ways to get at bats, but they’ve produced when called upon.

Freeman has only had more than one at bat in consecutive days twice this season, but he’s hit .290 in 62 at bats. Fry has only had more than one at bat two days in a row once but has contributed a big three run HR vs. San Diego and two game winning hits (June 24th vs. Milwaukee and Tuesday night vs. the Braves).

And Fry strikes out a lot too, fanning 13 times in 44 plate appearances.

So we ask, if you were Terry Francona, who would you play when an opportunity arises? That’s what trying to get young players at bats while contending looks like.

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?