5 Cleveland Indians Prospects Likely To Be Promoted In 2017

Giovanny Urshela, 3B

Can you call Giovanny Urshela a prospect anymore? For the sake of this column, let’s say yes. He’s in his age 25 season, but it seems like ions ago that he made his MLB debut with the Tribe in 2015. When he was promoted, the Indians were a defensive disaster. Urshela, along with Lindor, brought instant credibility to the the left side of the infield.

The knock on Urshela remains the same: He can’t hit. He won’t be replacing Jose Ramirez at third base, but he is a viable short-term option defensively should someone on the roster go down with an injury.

And like Gonzalez, Urshela could receive an opportunity in wake of Kipnis’ injury if the Tribe decides it must move Ramirez to second.

Urshela is not one of the 30 prospects listed on the MLB Pipeline site, a blog that tracks the organization’s top 30 prospects. Nor is Urshela ranked by Baseball America any longer as one of the Tribe’s most promising up-and-comers.

Offensively, his 2016 numbers at Triple A don’t pop. He slashed .274/.294/.380. These stats only added to the rap on Gio: Great glove, bad bat.

With that said, it doesn’t appear the Indians are ready to give up on the Columbian native, just yet, via MLB.com.

"“We need to make sure that his development doesn’t stall,” Francona said. “I think for a while last year it did. We actually have talked to him about that. … It’s something we need to prevent, because he’s got too much of a chance to be an everyday Major League third baseman."

Urshela should receive a lot of Spring Training at bats now that his time in the World Baseball Classic is over. He hit .143 in his three games playing for Columbia.