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April 19, 2016The Cleveland Indians may have struggled and lost two of three to the New York Mets over the weekend, but on Monday, they received some good news: Outfielders Michael Brantley and Lonnie Chisenhall are expected to be activated from the disabled list soon, this according to MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian.
Indians manager Terry Francona stated that Chisenhall is scheduled to be activated off the 15-day disabled list on Wednesday and Brantley isn’t far behind. Chiz started in center field for Double-A Akron Monday night, while the Brantley started in left field. Chisenhall is expected to serve as the team’s designated hitter Tuesday night before presumably coming off the disabled list. Recovering from a left wrist injury, the former third baseman is expected to be a platoon-outfielder in the team’s lineup, but Francona mentioned on Sunday that he has to get back in the swing of things before he can play in Cleveland again.
“It’s more, now, getting back adjusted to playing nine innings of baseball, playing right field, making the plays and getting his at-bats. His at-bats have just been so sporadic that you need some time to kind of be able to do what you can do.”
Voted as the game’s best left fielder heading into the season, Brantley will provide a tremendous boost to not only the outfield depth, but the lineup as well. Expected to be the team’s third hitter in the lineup, Brantley’s return will allow the rest of the lineup to return to where they are used to, providing even more depth 1-through-9 in the order. In 2015, the 28-year-old had a .310 batting average (second among LF), .379 on-base percentage (first), 45 doubles (first), 84 RBIs (second), and a .480 slugging percentage (third) in 137 games.
Chisenhall played in right field in 47 of 86 games he appeared in last season, surprising many with his prowess in the corner. While he started in center field for the RubberDucks Monday night, that could be a sign of things to come as he could become a player like Jose Ramirez, who has an ultimate utility man who can play many positions on the field. In 2015, He had a .246 batting average with seven home runs, 44 RBIs, and 69 strikeouts in 333 at-bats.
Brantley and Chisenhall’s return will provide quite a boost to a lineup that has hit .241 (18th among MLB outfields), 10 home runs (tied-17th), 40 RBIs (21st), and 97 strikeouts (tied-15th) so far in 2016. With Brantley expected to become the everyday left fielder and Chisenhall likely being able to play center field and right field, players such as Collin Cowgill and Tyler Naquin could be sent down to Triple-A Columbus when the two are activated.
11 Comments
I’m surprised our outfield has been rated so high offensively. It’s basically middle of the pack. And going forward, you’ll have Brantley taking AB’s from Cowgill and Davis. Onwards and upwards!
It’s hard to overestimate Brantley’s impact, as his addition will bump one of the least good hitters from a given lineup card. Despite the fact that righties Byrd and Davis have thus far had severely reversed splits this year, I think we can assume they will still end up near career averages, so if Cowgill gets the obvious boot, that gives you two lefties and two righties competing for the other two OF spots. The big question is whether or not they keep 5 OF for a while so Brantley can get frequent rest days for the first couple of weeks, and whether or not the apparent experimentation with Chisenhall indicates some desire to send Naquin down rather than let either Byrd or Davis go in the case they don’t keep 5OF. Perhaps they don’t feel comfortable with Davis as the everyday guy at this point. Byrd’s historical splits are more even than Davis’, so I can understand being more concerned about platoon splits there.
Looking forward to seeing:
1. Kipnis – L
2. Lindor – S
3. Brantley – L
4. Napoli – R
5. Santana – S
6. Gomes – R
7. ChisenByrd – L/R
8. Davequin – R/L
9. Uribe – R (of course I’m actually looking forward to this being Urshela later in the year)
In other news, Joey Butler, who was an above average hitter in the majors last year, is absolutely raking so far in Columbus. Can he play Right reasonably well? How long before he starts challenging Byrd for a roster spot against LHP?
Butler is a terrible defender, and he hasn’t ever had much in the way of platoon splits. He wouldn’t be a good platoon partner for those reasons. Butler is a serviceable bat who can play everyday at LF or 1B without worry about platoon matchups, but realistically his bat doesn’t justify that kind of play at the major league level. At this point, he is depth in case of an injury to Santana, Napoli or Brantley.
Also worth noting that the Indians have an “advanced consent clause” with Byrd. The exact amount of days is unknown, but per CBA rules it’s a maximum of 45 days. The clause would allow them to cut Byrd without owing him the full amount of his contract for the season. While Cowgill is almost certainly going down first, the second man to go is:
1) Naquin, making Byrd basically the everyday RF and Chisenhall the CF against RHP
2) Byrd, meaning one of Chisenhall/Naquin have to play against LHP unless Ramirez is available
3) One of the 7 right handed relievers on the team. However, as none of them aside from closer Cody Allen have options, this means the Indians will have to DFA and likelky release someone 3 weeks into the season, having paid them $1M or more for less than 5 appearances.
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I think its going to be closer to 1b – Davis is basically the everyday CF.
In his first full year in the majors he was definitely better against RHP, but his splits don’t look all that bad to me. And I never watched him play defense much, although poking through advanced stats is making him look basically average, although it doesn’t look like he played much of anywhere other than LF for the most part. You are probably right that he’s depth at this point, but if he keeps hitting like this, you’d think a team with run scoring issues looks for a way to make a spot.
I tend to agree. Naquin is the one with flexibility to go down to AAA. I can’t see them giving up on Byrd in April, and I can’t see them abandoning Rajai Davis only a month into Naquin’s mlb career with no safety net. And they’re probably already going to have to boot a pitcher to make room for Hunter sometime soon.
I don’t see them giving up on Byrd either. But it’s a possibility that should be noted. I didn’t expect them to cut Ramsey or Soto, but they’re gone and claimed so here we are.
And yes, they would have to boot somebody for Hunter unless someone get hurt. However, that could end up being Bauer going back to the rotation and Anderson going back to Columbus. I don’t really see the Indians being the type to guarantee someone like Chamberlain or Hunter $1M+ to play 3 weeks of the season then burning the asset after already having burned players from the 40 to get them on the opening day roster. It’s a little different with Byrd because reportedly they can escape from the rest of the money owed him, but Chamberlain is making that $1M either way, same with Shaw or Manship’s arbitration money.
Keep in mind 2 things about AAA stats – Huntington Park in Columbus is tremendously hitter-friendly. Also, AAA basically plays with an entirely different strike zone these days, as they don’t have pitchFX critiquing the umpires. It’s been noted elsewhere that this is a documented, identifiable change in the MLB – the bottom of the strike zone has expanded. That’s not the case in the minors, and means that batters who feast on high pitches for power like Aguilar and Butler are less likely to translate to the majors.
Meanwhile the guy whose swing is exclusively designed to punish low pitches is Mike Trout, and he’s the best player in baseball.
Yeah but Butler was in the majors last year, and he had an OPS+ of 106. That’s not a star, but average to slightly above average hitters haven’t exactly been piling up on the shores of lake Erie lately. It’s better than Byrd, Cowgill, or Davis did last year, and it’s better than Austin Jackson, who people were dying for us to have. Like I said, I never watched him much so I can’t comment on his defense, but I’m not sure why he doesn’t warrant some attention and, frankly, why he was available to us for nothing in the first place. Maybe he has terrible breath? A healthy Brantley won’t help Butler’s career at all, but that’s why I wonder if he can play any other positions.
Good point about the rotation shifts. I always imagined they were just stashing Bauer in a weak bullpen while they gave Anderson and Tomlin some more time. If Anderson really takes off, I expect them to eventually trade Tomlin, and if Anderson doesn’t, they’ll send him down and move Bauer back. Getting Hunter back might be some level of impetus for a move, although it seems early still to make those decisions.