5 impacts Mike Clevinger trade will have on Cleveland Indians

3. Trade helps now

The Cleveland Indians can finally claim to have addressed one of their outfield spots by instantly inserting Josh Naylor into left field. Notice I wrote addressed, not fixed. Naylor’s the latest guy who the Tribe is going to throw against the wall to see if he sticks.

Naylor may not be the exciting prospect we all wanted to stick out there, but this 2015 first-round pick is still just 23 years old. He started to flash some power in the minors, hitting a combined 27 home runs between 2018 and 2019, but that power’s yet to translate at the big league level.

He’s the brother of Bo Naylor, the Indians first-round pick from 2018, who’s currently top rated prospect (catcher) in the organization.

Pitcher Cal Quantrill, a first-round pick from the 2016 draft, should also join the big league club. He had been a starter throughout his time in the minors, and even started games with the Padres last season, but he’s been a bullpen guy in 2020.

In 2019, as a starter, he was 6-8 with a 5.16 ERA and 7.78 strikeouts per nine innings. As a reliever this season, he’s 2-0. He’s struck out 18 in 17.1 innings.

Austin Hedges is an upgrade at catcher over current backup Sandy Leon. Hedges is known for his defense. At the dish, it’s pretty bad. He’s hitting .199 with .616 OPS in parts of six big-league seasons.