Tyler Naquin, Franmil Reyes, Roberto Perez, Shane Bieber, and Zach Plesac are just some of the names up for the Cleveland Indians mid-season player awards.
When you have names like Tyler Naquin, Franmil Reyes, Roberto Perez, Shane Bieber, and Zach Plesac on the Cleveland Indians, you’re going to have some candidates for some awards. That’s why we’re taking a look at the mid-year award winners for the 2020 Cleveland Indians. Now with the team being officially half-way through the year, it’s time to look at who has stood out the most. You’ll recognize the award categories for most, as a way to stay in line with the MLB way of awarding the best of the best. For the mid-year team awards, your most valuable player is the MVP, the best pitcher on the team will win the “Cy Young”, while the best defender gets the Gold Glove award.
Yes, there are more than one possible players to win these awards, we’re just handing out one team-centric version of the award to one player. Players aren’t prohibited from winning more than one award either. No one won two or more awards, but there was no rule against it.
So with that being said, let’s take a look at who the 2020 Cleveland Indians Mid-Year Award winners are.
Indians Mid-Year MVP: Franmil Reyes
Franmil Reyes started off slow, with Jose Rameriz taking on most of the workload for the offense in the early games of the season. At the same point in time, guys like Reyes, Francisco Lindor, Carlos Santana, and most of the team had failed to get off on the right foot. That’s where Rameriz came in originally
Yet, as the season road on, Rameriz started to step back some, which then saw Reyes picking up the heavy lifting in recent weeks. Reyes is tied for the team lead in home runs (6), has the second-most RBI’s (18) and is the team-leader in batting average (.291) among hitters that have currently qualified for post-season awards.
Indians Mid-Year Breakout Player: Tyler Naquin
Tyler Naquin doesn’t get the respect he deserves. During Terry Francona’s time with the club, his mishandling and lack of opportunities given to Naquin is arguably Francona’s biggest issue. Francona has been great and has had few complaints levied against him, but Naquin’s handling is arguably the biggest issue that Francona has allowed to keep opping up.
An obvious starter, now that the outfield is a wreck and no one is hitting Naquin has finally been called upon to actually play consistently during the shortened season. While Naquin missed some time to start the season, he’s played well since coming off the DL. Naquin is hitting over .300 as the mid-way point of the season comes to an end. While he may not stay at .300 throughout the year, the fact he has come into the lineup when he did and become such a steady and consistent hitter shows what he’s capable of doing across a full season.
Indians Mid-Year Cy Young Winner: Shane Bieber
Yes, there is no “team Cy Young winner” but we’re having fun here so just roll with it, ok?
If you’re someone who believes that pitchers should qualify for the MVP award, then Shane Bieber is your 2020 MVP as well. That said, this is not an article that believes pitchers should ever qualify for an MVP. Hitters contribute every day (save for the rare day off) and starting pitchers only once every five days. That isn’t to take away anything from Bieber, who is among the top three or four pitchers in all of baseball at the moment.
He’s currently 6-0, with a 1.35 ERA and 75 strikeouts. He’s only given up seven runs all year, and only nine base-on-balls. He’s been absolutely magic from the pitcher’s mound. He’s not just the best pitcher on the team but he’s probably the best in the league.
Indians Mid-Year Standout Reliever: James Karinchak
You’d be forgiven if the name James Karinchak isn’t one that you remember. Having only pitched five innings in 2019, the still-rookie is currently 16 innings deep into his premiere year and has only given up one run so far into the 2020 campaign.
Posting a ridiculous .054 ERA, Karinchak has become untouchable. A crazy high 31 strikeouts for a ratio of nearly 2k’s per inning thrown. He’s been unbelievably effective coming out of the bullpen.
Brad Hand is still the closer and has done an admirable job as the team’s back-of-the-bullpen guy but Karinchak is showing the team and the league that he’s going to be the next great reliever in the Majors; assuming he continues to pitch well.
Indians Mid-Year Storyline of the season: The Clevinger/Plesac debacle
This one is hard because it’s competing with Terry Francona’s health issues, the reemergence of Franmil Reyes and Tyler Naquin, Sandy Alomar making a strong case to be a team’s manager, Triston McKenzie’s debut and Shane Bieber’s awe-inspiring season.
Yet it was the time Zach Plesac and Mike Clevinger broke team and league rules to go out and party in Chicago while on a road trip that has become the biggest story surrounding the team. The event caused wide-spread condemnation and had more twists and turns than a Cedar Point roller coaster. Not until the season is over, or until the team moves on from both men, will this story actually be done. Until then, people will still bring it back up.
Indians Mid-Year Gold Glover: Francisco Lindor
While yes, the Gold Glove is given out to the best defensive player at every given position in both the AL and NL, like with the MVP and Cy Young, we’re just giving out one to the best glove on the team so far. That goes to Francisco Lindor.
While Carlos Santana and Cesar Hernandez were considered as well, Lindor is among the team leaders in putouts, assists, and double plays turned. Not too mention as of Aug 27, he’s yet to commit an error defensively. His playing of shortstop does help, as it’s routinely considered the most difficult position to play in the field, but he’s also played really well defensively as to boot. The whole team has, actually. Thus making this not just a hard one to decide on but also a reassuring fact to hold onto as the season continues on.
This team is great defensively.