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November 3, 2014Cleveland Browns Week 9 Winners and Losers
November 3, 2014Those Cleveland Indians fans looking to see Francisco Lindor in the big leagues will apparently have to wait a little while longer. Terry Pluto of The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the Tribe plans to have their shortstop prospect begin next season at Triple-A Columbus.
When given the chance to add him to their expanded roster this past September, the Indians opted against it in favor of Jose Ramirez and his league-leading sacrifice bunts. Pluto writes that the Indians “believe [Lindor] can use more time” in the minors, and there’s also the matter of holding back the start of his arbitration clock.
As a 20-year-old who split time between Akron (Double-A) and Columbus last season, Lindor produced a slash line of .276/.338/.389 (.727 OPS) with 16 doubles, 11 home runs and 75 runs scored. His glove has long been considered MLB-ready, but the team continues to strive for development at the plate.
Also not working in Lindor’s favor: Shortstop is a position of strength for the Tribe as the switch-hitting Zach Walters (.682 OPS with 10 HR and 17 RBI in 2014) is a natural shortstop who the team simply opted to throw in to the outfield in order to utilize his power at the plate. The Indians also picked up their $3.5 million option on utility man Mike Aviles (.616 OPS with five HR and 39 RBI in 2014). Per Pluto, Tribe manager Terry Francona believes it’s important to have veterans on the bench “who understand that they aren’t starters.”
10 Comments
Kipnis in RF, Ramirez at 2B, Aviles at SS…Lindor getting called up at the break or Sept, depending on how we’re doing.
there’s also the matter of holding back the start of his arbitration clock.
yep, nothing to see here. this is just the Indians getting out ahead of the story. “It was our plan to start him at AAA the whole time.” well, duh, it saves the clock from starting. we’ll see him in June.
Aviles everyday? Tito loves him and even he knows Mike isn’t a starter.
I agree, but he’s a serviceable stopgap and helps shore up the horrendous D. Mix in a spit start for Ramirez or the utility man. I think Kipnis should be out in RF and would like to see Ramirez get some time at 2B for an eventual middle infield combo with Lindor.
I think Ramirez can transition from SS to 2B pretty easily. So, I want our strongest IF defender at SS and that it Ramirez until Lindor comes up.
I agree with you that Kipnis should be pushed to RF, but I don’t think the team will do it until Lindor comes up. Heck, if we do have Aviles start, then I would probably put him at 2B. But, I hope we have other options there.
This all plays into April not counting for this franchise, ever, unless they do well that month then they’ll make sure to remind everyone.
It more plays into “Francisco Lindor is simply not ready to hit at a major league level”. Because he’s not. Here are his AAA numbers before getting called up, compared to the light-hitting Ramirez:
Lindor: .273 AVG, .307 OBP, 5% BB, 20% K, .115 ISO, wOBA of .311 (180 PAs)
Ramirez: .302 AVG, .360 OBP, 9% BB, 10.8% K, .139 ISO, wOBA .357 (277 PAs)
And Ramirez isn’t good at hitting. Lindor needs to do better before he gets that call. Even if you argue fielding, it’s unlikely that Lindor is immediately that much better than Ramirez. Because Ramirez is already pretty good at fielding. If you take his UZR/150 numbers, he’s the top defensive shortstop in all of baseball. He’s probably not really that good (UZR notoriously takes a long time to normalize), but it’s unlikely that his glove is the thing that needs replacing.
And as a final point, I link you to this: http://www.royalsreview.com/2011/2/14/1992424/success-and-failure-rates-of-top-mlb-prospects
The failure rate for top 100 prospects who happen to play SS is 70%. Lindor is by no means a can’t miss prospect yet. We need Ramirez and Kipnis available to continue playing 2B/SS because Lindor hasn’t proven anything yet. He needs to hit in AAA before we just hand him the major league SS position. Because if we did it now, we’d likely be experiencing some significant growing pains… during a contending year. That’s just not smart.
They don’t even need to apologize for this, most teams do this.
Zach Walters might have played a lot of SS growing up but he is not a natural MLB shortstop. His future is at 2B, 3B or LF/RF.
The Tribe does try to get guys like 600 AB at the upper levels for most players. This isn’t outlandish.
I don’t think they should apologize either.