Cleveland Indians: It’s time to sit Carlos Santana and Franmil Reyes

Franmil Reyes and Carlos Santana are the heart of the order for the Cleveland Indians but their inconsistency is costing the team opportunities.

Usually, the Cleveland Indians know how to get guys like Franmil Reyes and Carlos Santana back on track. You just let them keep swinging and they eventually get out of the funk. That would work this year too if the season had 162 games. Any other point of any other baseball season, you let the two slumping sluggers hit their way out of this. That’s baseball 101. This isn’t a regular baseball season and regular rules no longer apply. Entering this weekend, a quarter of the season will have been completed. The team can’t afford for them to keep hitting this badly as the season continues on.

Terry Francona needs to sit the sluggers and hope someone else can produce.

That’s part of the problem. The Indians’ entire offense is dreadful and part of the issue stems from the teams’ recklessness in trading away the Clint Fraizer’s of their minor league team. The team still has guys to call on, however, like Jake Bauers and Bobby Bradley, so it’s not like they don’t have options. Now it won’t be easy to move guys around this season as opposed to others, but right now anyone is better than Reyes and Santana.

For one, Reyes has four RBI’s which for this team is good. He only has seven hits, however. He’s literally feast or famine. Santana is even worse off, who has only produced two RBI’s so far this year. Letting Michael Brantley leave in free agency a few years ago is looking worse and worse.

Part of the reason is that Brantley is hitting .438 for the year so far. He’s not the only one starting off hot, as New York Yankee slugger Aaron Judge has seven home runs and 17 RBI already. That’s more Francisco Lindor and Jose Rameriz, the two leading Indians in those stats, combined. Thankfully after a dismal start, Lindor has started to come on and has been one of two only two pieces of regular offense, alongside Rameriz.

Bradley Zimmer is third on the team in batting average but has only half as many at-bats as others who are struggling right now. Namely, Owen Mercado, Santana, and Reyes. There’s no good reason why Reyes is getting more at-bats than Zimmer.

That is a gap that ‘s closing, however.

To be clear, no one is suggesting that they should be benched for the year. Three, four games tops. Let them work on their swing, hit balls, work with hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo. Let them take a few days off to get right mentally. If Bauers, Bradley, Zimmer, or whomever you throw out there fail to do better, but them back in and see what Reyes and Santana can do.

Regardless of what, something has got to change because one day the pitching won’t keep holding, and the team will need to score more than three runs to win.